ENIGMAS OF 
PSYGHICAL RESEARCH 



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ENIGMAS OF 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 











ENIGMAS OF 
PSYCHICAL 
RE SEARCH 

BY 

JAMES H.HYSLOP,Ph.D.,IL.D. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF ETHICS AND 
LOGIC IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

Author of 
*' Science and a Future Life,''^ etc, 

HERBERT B. TURNER & CO. 
BOSTON - - - 1906 











Copyright, 1906 

iSp |)erbert 48* Currwr Si Co. 

Entered at Stationers'* Hall 
London 



Published March, 1906 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

TwoCoDies Received 

FEB 26 1906 



^ Coayriehl Entry 
CLASS <:t ^Xc. No, 
' ^ COPY S. ^ 



COLONIAL PRESS 

Printed by C. H, Simonds & Co. 

Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



^ 



DEDICATED TO 

WHOSE FAITH REQUIRES NO SCIENCE FOR ITS 
PROTECTION AND WHOSE SYMPATHY AND 
APPRECIATION IN A TRYING MOMENT 
MAKE IT A PLEASURE TO IN- 
SCRIBE MORE THAN THE 
USUAL ACKNOWL- 
EDGMENT 



PREFACE 

The present volume may be considered as a sup- 
plement to the one on Science and a Future Life, 
which has been pubHshed. In that work I gave a very 
inadequate summary of the phenomena bearing upon 
Telepathy and Apparitions, and I said nothing what- 
ever regarding several other types of phenomena hav- 
ing an equal scientific interest. I was occupied in 
that volume with facts related more directly to the 
question of survival after death, especially as experi- 
mentally supported. In the present book I have 
seized the opportunity to go over the whole field of 
the supernormal. While I have discussed Telepathy 
and Apparitions more exhaustively than before, I 
have added much material on Crystal Gazing, Coinci- 
dental Dreams, Clairvoyance, and Premonitions, with 
some illustrations of Mediumistic Phenomena without 
involving these with the more scientific case of Mrs. 
Piper. I have tried to give all of them that unity of 
interest and meaning which are due to the super- 
normal having psychological character and demand- 
ing more scientific investigation than it has yet re- 
ceived. 

The nature of the present work must not be mis- 
understood. I have not quoted the various experi- 
ences in the work for purposes of scientific proof of 
a transcendental world, and much less as evidence 
of what such a world is, if the facts should prove it, 
but as evidence of something which needs further vor 

vii 



viii ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

vestigation. Taken collectively the facts have an 
impressive character for some general conclusion, but 
those who understand psychology will want to re- 
serve their judgment for something more than a 
probable supernormal. Speculations ignoring normal 
experience must still wait awhile, and perhaps ought 
always to be discouraged on the part of any but the 
most expert. 

The reader may wonder why the illustrations 
chosen are so old. It will be noticed that some of 
them extend back into the previous generation, and 
I shall no doubt be asked why I have not included 
incidents of a more recent origin. The answer to 
an inquiry of this kind is very easy. I selected the 
cases quoted because they had received the recogni- 
tion of a scientific body, and do not represent the 
judgment of any single person. I am here dealing, 
not with experiences which individually might have 
no value, but with matter that has received the 
imprimatur of the Society for Psychical Research, 
and whatever its value to others, it bears an impress- 
iveness that it would not have if presented by an 
individual. There are plenty of recent phenomena 
having the same character, and I have a number of 
cases in my own possession. But I should not think 
of publishing them until they received the considera- 
tion of scientific men. There are perhaps more than 
a thousand similar instances in the files of the Ameri- 
can Bramch of the parent society, but these require 
systematic treatment and publication in a scientific 
manner before they can obtain attention in this work. 
The nature of the phenomena is such, and the per- 



PREFACE ix 

plexities of the problem are such, that only large 
collections of incidents can count for scientific pur- 
poses, and we can safely use only such as have re- 
ceived the indorsement of an intelhgent body of men. 
Besides, I do not wish in this work to assume respon- 
sibiHty for the facts, but to give some unity of inter- 
pretation to such as have been deemed by others as 
worthy of attention. 

As to recent experiences I can only point a moral 
regarding their absence in this work, after what I 
have just said. All that is wanted to give recent 
phenomena of the kind quoted a proper consideration 
is the endowment fund that will enable qualified men 
to examine their credentials. Men cannot expect us 
to give scientific character to newspaper stories. 
Very thorough investigation is necessary to make ex- 
periences of this kind worthy of any but a humorous 
interest, and the sooner that the public learns the 
need of endowment in this field equal to that for 
polar expeditions and deep-sea dredging, the sooner 
it will have some intelligent knowledge of the subject. 
It is certainly as deserving as football and yacht 
races. The matter has been left too long to the 
private resources of a few individuals, and expecta- 
tions which are entertained of these are a satire on 
human judgment. It is no light task to collect a 
census of coincidental experiences having scientific 
value for proving the supernormal, and it should 
have the financial support commensurate with its 
importance on any theory whatsoever of the facts. 
The great religious forces of the past civihzation are 
dissolving into pohte forms and rituals, and the pas- 



X ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

sionate interest of men is turning either to science 
or to illusion and folly for guidance. Science has 
obtained the mantle and heritage of religion for the 
education and direction of human belief, and the 
sooner it takes up its duties in that field the more 
important its message to man. 

James H. Hyslop. 

New York, December 9, 1905. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. THE RESIDUES OF SCIENCE 

11. THE ANCIENT ORACLES . 

in. CRYSTAL VISION: HISTORY 

IV. CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 

V. TELEPATHY . 

VI. DREAMS . 

VII. APPARITIONS 

Vin. CLAIRVOYANCE 

IX. PREMONITIONS 

X. MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 

XI. RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 



PAGE 
1 

11 

40 
50 
92 

114 
183 
272 
306 
332 
391 



ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

CHAPTER I 

THE RESIDUES OF SCIENCE 

When Chemistry began studying the slag of old 
smelting-f urnaces ; when Astronomy began to in- 
quire about the stories of falling meteors; when 
Physics began to investigate the properties of amber 
and the compass; when Medicine turned a willing 
ear to the claims of hypnotism and suggestion; 
when Roentgen caught a strange shadow picture in 
his laboratory and Madame Curie found certain 
anomalies in pitchblende, curiosity was rewarded 
with discoveries that have done much to revolutionize 
philosophic and scientific theories. The residual 
phenomena of nature, caught at some odd angle of 
its course, always carry with them the suspicion of 
undiscovered deeps in its alembic, and wise is the man 
who allows no glimpse of its wonders to escape his 
attention and interest. 

But his expectant vision must not lose sight of that 
regular order which had seemed to leave no chance 
for variation and exception. He must respect the 
old facts and laws that guided suit for truth before 
he found it necessary to launch on an unknown sea. 
There should be no break in the transition to new 
knowledge. In an age which has cast the conquests 

I 



2 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

of the past to the winds and has started an excited 
hunt for a new world it is well to have compass and 
rudder from experience. Yet the look windward is 
only a precaution against the shoals that lie in the 
path of new interests, needing guidance and reflec- 
tion on the forces that brought us hither and that 
have concealed those facts which carry the mysteries 
of the world into the reach of knowledge. Evolution 
apparently allows no stoppage in the opportunity for 
inquiry, and when it is ready for a revelation it 
quietly throws on the surface of a beaten shore some 
new pearl which only wisdom can value, and woe be- 
tide the student if, in perceiving the gift of fortune, 
he neglects to seek its meaning as a beacon light in 
the great ocean of ignorance. It may take him long 
to find an interpretation consistent with the massive 
knowledge of the past, but when he does find it the 
widened horizon of truth and hope only reveals in 
the misty distance a limitless path of discovery, 
while achievement and prophecy may blend in one 
harmonious symphony. 

The history of man's most assured beliefs has 
been associated with the most familiar phenomena. 
The nature of land and sea, the forms of organic 
life, animal and vegetable, the development of social 
and poHtical institutions, the origin of the cosmos, 
and the progress of industrial life have absorbed 
his mental and practical interests and thrust from 
attention all sporadic phenomena which did not at 
once resolve themselves into the schemes of his normal 
thought and activity. Only when science had to look 
for new worlds to conquer could it be persuaded to 



THE RESIDUES OF SCIENCE S 

venture into the field of those obscure events that 
were generally forgotten as soon as they occurred. 

Besides science in its well-known physical world 
has been forced to deal with so many exceptional 
facts that it is also forced to lend an attentive ear to 
any claims of still further residual phenomena. Its 
own progress it at stake in the matter. To cease 
inquiry with only such facts as consist with its past 
achievements and to ignore new facts which appar- 
ently conflict with the past or certainly widen our 
knowledge is to yield to the enemy and to allow its 
own system to atrophy. It is ever compelled to push 
forward or to accept limitations to its inquiries and 
opinions. 

The Greeks knew the properties of amber, but 
they built no electric cars. Hiero was familiar with 
the nature of steam, but he made no locomotives. 
Antiquity could make iridescent glass, but it knew 
neither the telescope nor the spectroscope, and so 
studied astronomy under adverse limitations. Ancient 
philosophy had its theory of the cosmos, but it had 
no guidance from chemistry. Electricity, the expan- 
sion of steam, the refraction of light, and the affini- 
ties of matter were then quite as residual phenomena 
as are telepathy and apparitions to-day. But the 
latter have not yet secured the attention and respect 
that their claims justify or demand, though they 
may conceal as important conclusions for man's de- 
velopment as ever came from the study of electricity 
or steam. The reason for this is not far to seek. 

The residual phenomena which to-day excite so 
much interest are associated with a theory of things 



4 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

which physical science supposed it had successfully 
dislodged. It has become accustomed to residual 
facts within its own domain, but it is loth to admit the 
existence of facts that limit that domain or demand 
the acceptance of a larger than the ordinary material 
world. So many conquests have been made by ig- 
noring a spiritual system, or by limiting its influence 
in the order of knowledge and things, that the estab- 
lished conceptions can resent almost any amount of 
interference, and keep at bay ideas that have so long 
been associated with losing causes. 

In all ages certain men have invariably been dis- 
satisfied with what they could feel or see or hear, and 
leave to imagination things real or apparent beyond 
the senses. This region was a world of mystery and 
miracle, occupying their interest and speculations, 
and they felt free to people it with agencies like 
themselves. The shadows of Fate, thrown on the 
vision by the inexorable law of nature, were relieved 
by imagining a world of warring spirits repeating 
in their ethereal life all the virtues and vices of man. 
Mythology, therefore, deified all the forces of nature 
and animated the very rocks and streams with life. 
Witness the names of Apollo, Minerva, Athena, 
Pluto, Vulcan, Proserpine, Neptune, and the nymphs, 
Nereids, sprites, and demons as numerous as the very 
elements. Nothing escaped the eye for the super- 
natural. The knowledge that came within the reach 
of the senses was spiritless and dull, and fancy ever 
soared into other worlds to obtain food for human 
passion. 

The anthropomorphic instinct never wholly sub- 



THE RESIDUES OF SCIENCE 5 

mits to disenchantment. It keeps ahead of science, 
and seizes every new fact for its own purposes, and 
by sheer force of necessity starts in its hereditary 
adversary the attitude of hostility. This adversary 
is always cautious and suspicious of the new, and 
after its ages of experience in exorcising the super- 
natural pursues its enemy with malicious persistency. 
The materialist will have nothing but his " natural," 
even if he has to change the meaning of his terms 
to preserve an apparent consistency. That is to say, 
he is ever ready to usurp cover of the new by ex- 
tending the meaning of " nature " and " matter," 
already strained beyond endurance, while he clings 
to the implications of their traditional import long 
after they have lost their validity. There is no 
elasticity of mind too great for his audacity, and he 
gloats like a conqueror over his imaginary triumphs, 
which are concessions of territory in all but the name. 
Committed by the very principle of his science to 
the study of facts and the limitation of speculation, 
he never sees any more than does his opponent the fu- 
tility of preserving his mental self-control. He is bent 
upon one Procrustean act as his antagonist is upon 
another. He would curtail the growth of knowledge 
as the other would illegitimately extend it. One will 
have only the " natural " and the other must add the 
" supernatural," while each forgets that both terms 
have long since lost their meaning and opposition. 
The residual phenomena that give all this trouble 
are within the province of psychology. Some of 
them are actually physical facts and are apparently 
classified as such, but they purport to come from the 



6 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

agency of discarnate spirits and their influence on 
matter, organic and inorganic, and are always asso- 
ciated with what is called a medium; a living human 
being without whom the alleged phenomena sup- 
posedly would not occur. Moreover, there are the 
additional facts of the observers and their defective 
accounts of the phenomena. The consequence is that 
they have to be classed as psychological in interest 
and character on one side of their occurrence, and 
this without regard to the question whether they are 
genuine or fraudulent. If they are fraudulent, we 
have the problem of criminal psychology, on the one 
hand, and that of dupes on the other. 

There is an intermediate type in which the medium 
may be abnormal, a neurotic, subject to fits of som- 
nambulism, trance, or multiple personality. In such 
a case acts may be done that would be ascribed to 
conscious trickery under other conditions, but which 
must be qualified as irresponsible if done in a state 
of trance or somnambulism. It is possible thus, in 
such phenomena, to reduce the amount of conscious 
and responsible fraud while we have interesting 
psychological facts of an important kind for all 
parties concerned. On the other hand, if any of the 
phenomena are genuine and are credibly supernor- 
mal, whether as mental or physical in character, they 
have a transcendent importance either as events 
closely related to illusion or as facts involving de- 
cidedly revolutionary conclusions in both physical 
and mental science. The other types are not disputed 
in their character. They are admittedly psychologi- 
cal. 



THE RESIDUES OF SCIENCE 7 

The various phenomena which I have in mind as 
residues of science are alleged raps and knockings, 
the alleged movement of physical objects without 
contact, technically called telekinetic, alleged telep- 
athy or thought-transference, alleged clairvoyance 
or perception of objects and events at a distance and 
without the ordinary sensory impressions, apparitions, 
or ghosts, whether of the Hving or the dead, and al- 
leged mediumistic communications with the dead. I 
shall include in these the consideration of the ancient 
oracles as being the source in antiquity of all the phe- 
nomena which we now separate into so many types. 
Their consideration only shows that the claims for 
the supernormal are not new and that it has only 
been the progress of a scientific view of things that 
has displaced the ancient source of mystery, or forced 
it to veil its identity under other names. 

But as the phenomena mentioned are perennial, 
and as they characterize the annals of the civihzed 
and uncivilized alike, there will be no escape for the 
scientific intellect from the duty of reducing them to 
some order and explanation. It matters not what the 
explanation may be, whether it points to something 
that transcends the known laws of nature or whether 
it discovers them all to be products of fraud and 
illusion. Either one of these conclusions carries a 
freight of great value to the human race. On the 
one hand, we cannot afford to allow illusion to prop- 
agate itself uncorrected in these democratic times 
when religion has lost its creed and its power. Those 
who are inclined to accept every allegation of the 
supernormal and of the supernatural, so-called, that 



8 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

comes along have the ballot and hold the balance of 
power, and their social and political interests will 
take the hue of their intellectual and religious be- 
liefs. They require education and disillusioning on 
alleged psychic phenomena quite as much as in 
economic and political institutions. These facts are 
certainly capable of quite as serious study and expla- 
nation as ancient religious rites and ceremonies, and 
the results can be made fully as helpful as these. On 
the other hand, if any of the phenomena actually 
possess the supernatural character attributed to 
them, they are among the most important ever opened 
to the speculative vision of man, especially if they 
throw any light upon his spiritual nature and destiny. 
The aristocratic attitude of ridicule regarding them 
will not serve any intelligent purpose. It will only 
reveal the shortcomings of the man who indulges this 
spirit. Persecution is the best encouragement of life, 
and the only sane conduct in the case is the careful 
study of claims that have much more strength, even 
if false, than in the last century. 

The simple reason for this is the fact that the 
alleged phenomena are no longer isolated. For 
centuries each individual told his experiences to his 
friends and died without recording them. At no 
time did he give his experiences scientific credentials 
or record, and the result was that they were buried 
in oblivion ; or perhaps the few that did get perma- 
nent expression were too few to influence the scien- 
tific mind, dependent as it is on quantity more than 
mere quality of facts. But a body of men to-day 
and for the last twenty-five years has been collecting 



THE RESIDUES OF SCIENCE 9 

these experiences and recording tliem with such in- 
vestigation as has been possible. It has gathered 
them from all quarters of the globe, regardless of 
their genuine or fraudulent character, if the real or 
alleged facts bore any evidence of being useful to 
science in any respect whatever. Though these facts 
may not prove anything supernormal, they suggest 
it, and make scientific investigation imperative. The 
records, however, are such as to eliminate many of 
the objections that are applicable to the isolated nar- 
rative. We may disqualify a single experience 
easily enough by pointing out its exposure to the 
charges of chance, illusion, fraud, dreaming, de- 
fective memory, or misinterpretation. But we can- 
not so easily break the force of a large collection 
of such incidents, especially when they agree m 
those crucial incidents bearing upon the super- 
normal and have such credentials as would affect a 
jury in a murder case. We can hardly suppose that 
any one of the objections named, and much less all 
of them together, wall be applicable to many thou- 
sands of cases having a common character related to 
supernormal faculty, consistently related, and as 
well accredited as the stories we do believe. We may 
break each stick in the bundle by itself; but it will 
not be so easy to break the bundle together. Conse- 
quently, with large numbers of coincidental phe- 
nomena well supported in their important aspects 
and bearing at least superficial evidence of an un- 
usual and perhaps supernormal character, we can- 
not escape the duty to give them serious attention, 
no matter what the outcome. 



10 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Being sporadic phenomena, much more sporadic 
than unusual physical phenomena, they can be 
gathered for scientific purposes only over large areas 
of time and space in order to make them scientif- 
ically impressive. The whole world must be their 
territory and centuries their history in order to as- 
sure ourselves of an intelligent view of them. Indeed, 
we shall have to educate the very sources of them 
into accurate observers, careful recorders, and dis- 
interested thinkers regarding them. In any case 
their claims are now too formidable to dismiss them 
with a sneer. The astronomer neglected the peas- 
ant's stories of meteors and ridiculed them until this 
could no longer be done, and then appropriated the 
proved fact of them to help him out of his difficulties 
in his theory of the constitution of the sun's heat. 
The French Academy would not receive the report 
of its first committee on Mesmer's work in Paris, 
packed a second committee to condemn it, published 
its report, and all to meet the restoration of the sub- 
ject to enforced scientific attention by Doctor Braid 
fifteen years afterward. It will be the same with the 
residual phenomena of mind, whether the conclusion 
be what is desired or not. 



^tj^. 



CHAPTER II 

THE ANCIENT ORACLES 

Modern civilization can hardly appreciate what 
was represented in antiquity by the oracles unless it 
be familiar with present-day mediumship and spirit- 
ualism. They have the same essential character, 
though there are differences which distinguish them 
so sharply that only the philosophic or the scien- 
tific mind will discover their identity. The article 
in the Encyclopoedia Britannica remarks that it 
" was a universal belief in the ancient world that there 
is a capacity in the human mind to divine the will of 
God," and refers to a saying of Plato in support of 
the view. Mr. F. W. H. Myers, in his most fasci- 
nating article on the same subject, connects the 
oracles with ancient religion and suggests a connect- 
ing link between the past and the present of religion 
in these phenomena. But it is easy to misunderstand 
the meaning of any language associating the oracles 
with the " Divine " and " religion." These terms 
inevitably have the import of all the ages that have 
followed the cessation of the oracles and the decay 
of ancient religions. 

" God " stands in modem times for a highly sub- 
limated conception, idealized by all the moral prog- 
ress that has been achieved by the centuries since 
the fall of Greco-Roman civilization, and hence 
represents a being or inteUigence without human 

11 



^rd 



12 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

limitations and with a will more or less inscrutable 
according to the standards of man. " Religion " is 
the worship and obedience of this being, with all 
the philosophic intelligence and culture of the ages 
associated with this attitude of mind, the ceremonials 
of antiquity having gradually lost their significance 
in the process of change. Hence when we speak of 
" God " and " religion " to-day we think of customs, 
beliefs, and conceptions, which have wholly elimi- 
nated from their associations all the actions and cere- 
monies which, in antiquity, actually defined the 
nature of the divine and of religion. To say that 
the oracles were essentially related to ancient relig- 
ious institutions is to state an important truth, but 
it does not carry with it any certain conception of 
what the religious institutions of the ancients were. 
We may even have the oracles fully described to us 
and learn no clear idea of what " religion " was for 
those times. 

We are all familiar with the anthropomorphic 
nature of ancient ideas of the " divine," and yet we 
hardly realize the nature and extent of it until we 
read their mythology and think of the average ignor- 
ance that prevailed. The gods were often deified 
heroes, often also nothing but deified physical forces, 
with little difference between the man and nature 
that were thus deified. The gods had their jealousies, 
their loves and hates, their human passions, their limi- 
tations, and were in every way the capricious beings 
which such an age considered as ideal powers. The 
gods, too, were as numerous as the forces or ab- 
stract principles that men assumed in the order of 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES IS 

things. There was no such moral idealization of 
them as appeared in the Judaistic conception of the 
divine and also in the Christian, taken from Judaism, 
after it had been reduced to a monotheistic form. 

Monotheism never took any serious hold on 
Greece or Rome. The philosopher Xenophanes at- 
tacked the polytheism of his time and insisted that 
the divine was but one. ^schylus gave expression 
to the same conception, and so perhaps all the more 
intelligent men of that period. The philosophers, 
where they accepted or coquetted with religion at 
all, were monotheistic in sympathy, but the reaction 
against the extravagant anthropomorphism of their 
age tended to carry them over to an impersonal view 
of the divine. The chasm that separated them from 
the common mind was almost impassable. What- 
ever religion the philosopher had was of the dry light 
of reason, as perhaps is the case in all periods, and 
dissociated itself from the superstitions of the multi- 
tude. There was no disposition to appropriate any 
of the common ideas and practices, except in defer- 
ence to social and political expediency. The un- 
educated classes had their freedom in religious mat- 
ters while the educated had the government. There 
was no consciously social function associated with 
religion. It did not generally have a system of sal- 
vation beyond the grave connected with its duties 
and services, as later religion had. The interest of 
religion for the ancient devotee was in his daily life 
and actions and mainly that part of them affecting 
his personal interests rather than social duties. With 
an aristocratic government not interested in relig- 



14 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ious matters, except as means for protecting its 
power, there was no reason for reforming religion, 
and so it was left with its practices among the com- 
mon people, intelligence and culture identifying 
themselves with science and art. There was no 
common life and interest, as in democratic times, 
between the two classes that made up the community. 
The superstitions of the one were so revolting that 
they would not bear the analysis of the other, and 
the rationalism of the intelligent classes could not be 
appreciated by the anthropomorphic imagination of 
those who were governed. 

It took another religion to introduce a social and 
ethical ferment into the every-day life of man. Greek 
thought never satisfactorily idealized the future, 
and though it did not like the present it strove to 
beautify it by art, and in this did not feel the re- 
sistance to its accomplishments that pervaded the 
Christian conception of nature. It was possible to 
see the excellent side of nature, and as it was better 
than the insane and purgatorial future, which the 
belief in a future life carried with it, there was no 
such repugnance to the carnal life as characterized 
the conception of the Christian who viewed it with 
the spectacles of a highly idealized immortality and 
divine government. The Christian reversed the point 
of view of the Greek and led to the neglect of the 
oracles, whose revelations were either of the sordid 
and carnal type which the ideal would not accept or 
were of that trivial character which the ideal would 
dismiss as long as it had any tenacity of hold on 
human conviction. Consequently the new view, irre- 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 15 

trievably committed to a golden age after death, to 
the moral and social equality of men before the 
judgment of the divine, to the doctrine that personal 
salvation depended at least partly upon a proper 
relation to other members of the community, and to 
the depreciation of the sensuous life as it exalted 
-the spiritual, was qualified equally to destroy the 
authority of the oracles and to offend the aristocracy 
of philosophy and politics. In all its vicissitudes 
and in spite of pagan inheritances this view has sus- 
tained its contrasts with ancient religions and was as 
little qualified to understand the oracles as it was 
justified in ignoring them, while it strove to convert 
the power and influence of both philosophy and poli- 
tics into servants of the people against the tyranny 
of favored classes. In this it ultimately succeeded, 
and invoked the intelligence which had no need of 
oracles while it discouraged their guidance of the 
ignorant. Though it retained some elements of 
anthropomorphism in its conception of God it chose 
a middle ground between the excesses of polythe- 
ism and the impersonal hue of a monotheistic panthe- 
ism, and in this manner gave such dignity to the 
divine that its revelations could no longer condescend 
to the trivialities and equivocations of an oracle. 

Greek religion, when it was connected with the 
oracles, offended aesthetics as much as it did intelli- 
gence, and only when it was rationalized in art did 
it receive any interest for the cultured classes. The 
consequence was that its rites and ceremonies were 
left to the ignorant and superstitious, and these 
were a larger class than in modern times. The ease 



16 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

with which knowledge is disseminated has extended 
scepticism and disHke for the " supernatural." But 
there was less opportunity and no disposition in an- 
tiquity to educate the masses, and hence they had 
for social and political reasons to be left with their 
religion. This took mostly the form of consulting 
the oracles or performing rites of sacrifice to appease 
the angry divinities. Christianity came and had 
but one medium between the individual and the deity, 
and, apart from his intercession, each man had to 
work out his own salvation, so that again the intel- 
lectual tendency in its system was to dispense with 
the oracles. 

I shall say nothing of the savage ancestry of the 
oracles, though they probably trace their lineage to 
the practices of primitive tribes growing out of 
ghost and other experiences. The point of interest 
for the psychic researcher begins with that form of 
rite and ceremony which represented a somewhat or- 
ganized effort to consult agencies supposed to be in 
communication with the divine or deceased human 
beings. These were especially apparent in the ora- 
cles, whose origin is certainly in the twilight of fable. 
But as culture and intelligence advanced they were 
either discredited or were left with the ignorant 
classes to make of them what they could. 

That they were the precursors of our modern 
mediums is evident in the character of their phe- 
nomena, though their relation to the religious prac- 
tices of the time conceals their identity. Moreover, 
the influence of Christianity to discourage their use, 
especially as they were associated with the supposed 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 17 

demoniac possession, has forced them to disconnect 
their practices from religion and make it a purely 
mercenary vocation. This is calculated to put them 
under more careful scrutiny. But ancient civiliza- 
tion depended so much upon the control of the igno- 
rant and superstitious that the identification of the 
oracles with religion was indispensable and ensured 
them a power equal to that of the priest. There 
were temptations, as now, to abuse that power in 
the interest of various personal and political causes. 
That there was such abuse is apparent in the scep- 
ticism displayed by those intelligent people who were 
sufficiently impressed with the phenomena to investi- 
gate or consult them. Socrates, himself the subject 
of an apparently external voice guiding him in some 
of his actions, went to test the trustworthiness of the 
oracle at Delphi. Croesus sent messengers to consult 
the same oracle in his own affairs, but would not 
trust it until he had tried an experiment to determine 
its genuineness, ^schylus was aware of the dan- 
gers accompanying the interpretation of the oracles ; 
for he puts into the mouth of lo in his Prometheus 
Bound the statement that her sire had " dispatched 
many a messenger to Pytho and Dodona to consult 
the oracles, that he might learn from them what it 
behoved him to do, that he might do what was well- 
pleasing to the divinity. They came bringing back 
a report that was ambiguously worded, indistinct, 
and obscurely delivered." It soon became a proverb 
even in antiquity that the oracles were ambiguous 
and unreliable. Any catalogue of their sayings 
would illustrate this in a large degree. Aristotle, 



18 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

one of the coolest and most cautious intellects of 
Greece, had to face the stories of oracular dreams and 
similar phenomena, and his verdict, showing the 
scepticism of the educated classes, was that " it is 
neither easy to despise such things, nor yet to believe 
them." Sporadic stories might easily be referred 
to myth or legend, but antiquity was crowded with 
oracles, and their votaries were too numerous to dis- 
miss every incident with the same answer; hence 
we may well understand the attitude of men like 
Aristotle without accepting his tolerant conviction. 
It seems to have been a fact that many of the best 
intellects of ancient times accepted the genuineness 
of some of the oracles after eliminating much for 
fraud and illusion. Successful instances had their 
adventurous imitators then as well as now. 

This is no place to discuss the nature of Greek 
religion, but I may briefly indicate that its chief 
features were found in the functions of the priest- 
hood and in the mantic art. The mantic art was 
based upon the idea that the divine and human were 
in close relation and that the advice and aid of the 
divine could be sought through appropriate means. 
" Deity and the world of nature and men," says 
Curtius, " stand, in the view of this devout faith, 
in inseparable connection. If, then, the moral sys- 
tem which underlies human aff^airs suffer any dis- 
turbance this must manifest itself also in the world 
of nature. Unusual natural phenomena in heaven 
or on earth, eclipses of the sun or moon, earthquakes, 
pestilence, famine, are signs that the divine wrath is 
aroused by wrong-doing, and it is important that 



hL.. 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 19 

mortals know how to understand and take advantage 
of these divine hints. 

" For this a special capacity is requisite ; not a 
capacity which can be learnt like a human art or 
science, but rather a peculiar state of grace in the 
case of single individuals and single families whose 
ears and eyes are opened to the divine revelations, 
and who participate more largely than the rest of 
mankind in the divine spirit. Accordingly, it is their 
office and calling to assert themselves as organs of 
the divine will; they are justified in opposing their 
authority to every power in the world." 

It was the priesthood to whom the interpretation 
of the signs of nature fell, and the study of omens 
and sacrifices illustrated this function. Whether this 
was the most primitive of their functions it is not 
necessary to decide, but whether it was or not, the 
priesthood continued this rite down to the decline 
and fall of ancient civilization. Whatever power they 
possessed was due less to its political character than 
to the national reverence for their wisdom and hon- 
esty. They became the sole interpreters of the ora- 
cles and all that was connected with the mantic art, 
which was the means employed to establish communi- 
cation between the divine and human. The priest- 
hood, however, were not the direct agencies for the 
communications, but were the interpreters of them, 
and so had to rely upon those exceptionally endowed 
persons or instruments which could come into closer 
contact with the divine, and whom we should to-day 
call mediums. 

" The god himself," continues Curtius, " chooses 



so ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the organs of his communications; and, as a sign 
that it is no human wisdom and art which reveals the 
divine will, Apollo speaks through the mouth of fee- 
ble girls and women. The state of inspiration is by 
no means one of specially heightened powers, but 
the human being's own powers — nay, own conscious- 
ness — are, as it were, extinguished, in order that 
the divine voice may be heard all the louder; the 
secret communicated by the god resembles a load 
oppressing the breast it visits ; it is a clairvoyance 
from which no satisfaction accrues to the mind of 
the seer. This seer or sibyl is accordingly not her- 
self capable of revelation; the things announced by 
her are as incomprehensible to her as to her hearers ; 
so that an interpretation is necessary to enable men 
to avail themselves of the prophecy. For this em- 
ployment those persons and families who, by their 
administration of his religious worship, stood near- 
est to the god seemed most naturally qualified; and 
this is the point at which the mantic art and the 
priesthood, which originally have nothing in common 
between them, first enter into a momentous connec- 
tion.'* 

It is thus apparent what power would naturally 
fall to the priesthood, and it would be useful to the 
race in proportion to the intelligence and honesty of 
its use, and any abuse of the power would be 'dis- 
covered or undiscovered in proportion to the culture 
of those who appealed to the oracles. It was, of 
course, hard for any institution to combine intelli- 
gently the practices of the mantic art, as handed 
down from tradition, and the results of growth in 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 31 

knowledge. The reading of omens comports as little 
with the studj of nature as it was indulged by Aris- 
totle and Epicurus as crossing one's self does with 
the chemical investigations of the laboratory. The 
advance of knowledge and of that view of nature 
which comes from the observation of its regular ac- 
tion, instead of coincidences like those claimed of 
astrology, must ever lead to the discredit of all such 
methods of interpreting the course of nature as is 
supposed to embody itself in consulting omens or 
resorting to magic. Hence as intelligence advanced 
in Greece, whatever value had to be assigned to the 
mantic art, it had to be made subservient to public 
uses and to the more intelligent interpretation of the 
world. 

We shall see in this the growth of that feature of 
it which ultimately led to the extinction of the ora- 
cles as sources of usable and practical information. 
In the earlier development of culture circumstances 
joined mystery with religion, and as that culture 
advanced it endeavored to harmonize as best it could 
the weird practices of magic, omens, and sacrifices 
with the more sober and rational knowledge of 
science. In the meantime and before the rise of 
philosophic reflection, when the functions of the 
priesthood were usurped by laym.en, the poets and the 
philosophers, the priest was the repository of all the 
useful knowledge that the race had acquired. " Thus 
the oracles became centres of culture, and that was 
the source of their power. After the culture of the 
immigrants and natives of any particular locality 
had become equalized by means of mutual communi- 



iA 



S2 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

cations, other foundations were needed to keep up the 
superior power once acquired by the priestly famiHes. 
These they obtained in the first place by taking eager 
measures in their own interest for the maintenance 
in their own circle of a scholastic drill, by which 
great readiness and assurance in answering the ques- 
tions proposed were secured. If they were questions 
touching the future, questions which no human being 
could answer with certainty, it was permissible with 
sagacious foresight to make the god answer in such 
a manner that the event could in no case prove him 
to have been in error. Questions into the decision of 
which the priests preferred not to enter they might 
reject on suitable grounds. These, it must be re- 
membered, were by no means always questions to be 
answered from a knowledge of the future ; but as 
a rule advice and counsel were sought in arduous 
undertakings, decisions in case of dispute, and in 
all manner of human difficulties ; in all of which 
even a mere impartial judgment might be of great 
use to the situation. Moreover, for many the ora- 
cle became a blessing, from the mere fact that after 
a long and anxious time of doubt they were driven 
to a fixed resolve, which they now cheerfully exe- 
cuted, trusting to the divine sanction. Moreover, 
the priesthoods were far too clever not to keep up 
a close and uninterrupted connection with all the 
more important points of the Hellenic world. 

" Not only through the widely spread Appolline 
priesthoods, but through personal relations of every 
kind, they had an accurate knowledge of the social 
condition of all the more important Hellenic places. 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES S3 

They knew the state of party questions before the 
parties appeared before them ; they possessed a clear 
judgment as to the external dangers and internal 
difficulties of the single communities ; they even 
had ways and means of seeing through individuals 
before they took the fate of the latter into their 
hands." Knowledge obtained in this way might be 
used or abused, but the priesthoods knew well, at 
least in the healthier state of their age, that their 
power and the confidence of the oracle seeker rested 
upon the extent to which their decisions conformed 
to truth and justice. When Hellenic civilization 
lost its primitive firmness and morality the tempta- 
tion would arise to abuse that power, and hence the 
scepticism of the oracles which arose in men like 
Socrates, Croesus, ^schylus, and Aristotle. 

Though there were connecting links between Greek 
and Roman religions, the latter seems not to have 
been so closely related to the search for oracular 
revelations. " The Latin worship," says Mommsen, 
" was grounded mainly on man's enjoyment of 
earthly pleasures, and only in a subordinate degree 
on his fear of the wild forces of nature; it con- 
sisted preeminently, therefore, in expressions of joy, 
m lays and songs, in games and dances, and above 
all in banquets. Comparatively slight traces are to 
be found among the Romans of belief in ghosts, fear 
of enchantments, or of dealing in mysteries. Ora- 
cles and prophecy never acquired the importance in 
Italy which they obtained in Greece, and never were 
able to exercise a serious control over public or pri- 
vate life." 



^4 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH ' 

What it is that turns the religious instinct of one 
nation to one type of worship and that of another 
to a different type need not occupy our inquiries. 
It is for us here only a fact of no special importance 
in understanding the actual place of the oracles in 
Greek religion. Nor need we inquire how the ora- 
cles came to possess the relative importance given 
them. That also is for us a mere fact, though we 
admit that the same general influences in man's rela- 
tion to nature produced the oracles as well as the 
more rationalistic view of the mysterious. It is prob- 
able that the union of the oracles with the functions 
of the priesthood was as much due to the need of 
protecting its power as it was to the interest in the 
racial religion. The Greek priesthood did not enjoy 
political power, though its influence was hardly less 
great than that of the rulers. It was the possessor 
of the moral and spiritual enlightenment of the com- 
munity, and when this was threatened by various in- 
fluences pohtical and intellectual it had only to ally 
itself with the institutions of the common people 
to preserve its place in the growing civihzation. It 
thus kept mystery right within the territory of grow- 
ing knowledge. The oracles in such a situation were 
the handy instruments of shrewd men as well as of 
sincere men, and in an unscientific age might easily 
mingle false and true, sanity and insanity, in indis- 
criminate confusion. 

The poetic temperament of the late Mr. Frederic 
W. H. Myers has led to a most interesting descrip- 
tion of both the nature and the origin of the oracles, 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 25 

which we may quote as saving the device of a longer 
history. 

" The attempt to define the word ' oracle ' con- 
fronts us at once with the difficulties of the subject. 
The Latin term, indeed, which we are forced to em- 
ploy, points specially to cases where the voice of 
God or spirit was actually heard, whether directly 
or through some human intermediary. But the cor- 
responding Greek term (jjuavTelov) merely signifies 
a seat of soothsaying, a place where divinations are 
obtained by whatever means. And we must not re- 
gard the oracles of Greece as rare and majestic 
phenomena, shrines founded by a full-grown myth- 
ology for the direct habitation of a god. Rather 
they are the products of a long process of evolution, 
the modified survivals from among countless holy 
places of a primitive race. 

" Greek literature has preserved to us abundant 
traces of the various causes which led to the ascrip- 
tion of sanctity to some particular locality. Oftenest 
it is some chasm or cleft in the ground, filled, per- 
haps, with mephitic vapors, or with the mist of a 
subterranean stream, or merely opening in its dark 
obscurity an inlet into the mysteries of the under- 
world. Such was the chasm of the Clarian, the 
Delian, the Delphian Apollo ; and such the oracle 
of the prophesying nymphs on Cith^ron. Such was 
Trophonius' cave, and his own name perhaps is only 
a synonym for the Mother Earth, ' in many names 
the one identity,' who nourishes at once and reveals. 

" Sometimes — as for instance at Megara, Sicyon, 
Orchomenus, Laodicea — the sanctity gathers around 



m ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

some fiairvXo^ or fetish stone, fashioned, it may be, 
into a column or pyramid, and probably in most 
cases identified at first with the god himself, though, 
after the invention of statuary, its significance might 
be obscured or forgotten. Such stones outlast all 
religions, and remain for us in their rude shapeless- 
ness the oldest memorial of the aspirations or the 
fears of man. 

" Sometimes the sacred place was merely some 
favorite post of observation of the flight of birds, or 
of lightning, like Teiresias' ' ancient seat of augury,' 
or the hearth from which, before the sacred embassy 
might start for Delphi, the Pythaists watched above 
the crest of Parnes for the summons of the heavenly 
flame. 

" Or it might be merely some spot where the divi- 
nation from bumt-ofl^erings seemed unusually true 
and plain, — at Olympia, for instance, where, as Pin- 
dar tells us, ' soothsayers divining from sacrifice make 
trial of Zeus who lightens clear.' It is needless to 
speak at length of groves and streams and moun- 
tain summits, which in every region of the world 
have seemed to bring the unseen close to man by 
waving mystery, or by rushing murmur, or by near- 
ness to the light of heaven. It is enough to under- 
stand that in Greece, as in other countries over which 
successive waves of immigration have passed, the 
sacred places were for the most part selected for 
primitive reasons, in primitive times ; then as more 
civilized races succeeded and Apollo came — whence 
and in what guise cannot here be discussed — the old 
shrines were dedicated to new divinities, the old sym- 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES ST 

bols were metamorphosed or disappeared. The fe- 
tish stones were crowned by statues, or replaced by 
statues and buried in the earth. The sibyls died in 
the temples, and the sun-god's island holds the sep- 
ulchre of the moon-maidens of the northern sky." 

Legend and history make Dodona the oldest seat 
of Greek oracles. There was a temple there, and 
Jupiter was the deity to which it was dedicated. The 
god was supposed to dwell in an old oak at that place, 
and various accounts indicate that his revelations 
were through the rustling of the leaves of the tree, 
or the resounding of the wind in the tripod that 
accompanied the institution of the oracles. There 
seems to have been no sorceress as a medium for the 
god, but only the priestly interpretation of physical 
signs by which the future was foretold. It was at 
a later period that the revelation took the form of 
mediumistic speech. The Dodonean oracle was an 
interpretation of the phenomena of nature, and ap- 
parently grew out of ancient tree worship. The oak 
of Shechem, where Jacob buried his false gods with 
their earrings, and the groves of Beersheba and 
other places of Judaistic note, were probably indi- 
cations of the same worship in Palestine, and the 
determined persecution which it received at the hands 
of those who made the Old Testament was the means 
of substituting a purer religion in its place. But 
these older types sought in the capricious phenomena 
of nature the indications of divine interposition in the 
affairs of man or the means of forecasting events 
of interest to the individual or the nation. 

The oracle of Delphi, however, was by far the most 



28 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

celebrated and the most important. This was the 
oracle of Apollo. " It was situated about six miles 
inland from the shores of the Corinthian Gulf, in a 
rugged and romantic glen, closed on the north by 
the steep, wall-like cliffs of Mount Parnassus, known 
as the Phasdriades, or Shining Rocks, on the east and 
west by two minor ridges or spurs, and on the south 
by the irregular heights of Mount Cirphis. Between 
the two mountains the Pleistus flowed from east to 
west, and opposite the town received the brooklet of 
the Castalian fountain, which rose in a deep gorge 
in the centre of the Parnassian cliff." The origin 
of the oracle is only legendary, and it extended its 
services down to the fall of ancient civilization. Its 
method was quite different from that of Dodona. 
The oracles were delivered by the voice, and required 
the services of both a priest and a medium, if we 
may so name the mode of communicating with the 
divine. As in similar phenomena of modem times 
the prophetess went into a " trance," feigned or 
real, and the communications were delivered in in- 
coherent utterances which had to be interpreted by 
the priest or by those who came to consult the oracle. 
Doubtless the methods of interpretation were affected 
by traditional practices and arbitrary meanings put 
upon the deliverances to suit the necessity of some 
answer. 

This oracle was consulted by men of all stations 
in life, private or public. It was a most frequent 
source of counsel in matters of state policy and es- 
pecially regarding war. No state, it seems, would 
go to war without consulting the oracle. The hopes 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 99 

and expectations created by its success inevitably 
imposed heavy obligations upon its services and led 
to methods that have made a by-word of the " oracu- 
lar " in modern times, and even in the more intelligent 
of Greek thinkers. Human nature, depending upon 
the divine or upon the direction of agencies in an- 
other world instead of upon its own resources, de- 
manded of the oracle counsels that the wisest could 
hardly be expected to give, and the temptation was 
open to abuse both in the communications and in the 
interpretation of them. The various influences that 
reduced the place of religion in the national life and 
substituted philosophy for it forced the oracles to 
give enigmatic answers to inquirers, and they lost 
the respect of the intelligent and retained only that 
of the superstitious, only a trace of their surviving 
interest and power being found in the Neo-Plato- 
nists. The celebrated deliverance to Croesus, when he 
inquired whether he should go to war, that a great 
nation would be destroyed, was ambiguous enough 
to lead him to his own destruction. The ambiguity 
of the answers may often have been due as much to 
ignorance as to studied deception ; but whether 
honestly or dishonestly the reputation of the oracle 
had to be sustained, and with the growth of natural 
knowledge and of scepticism the purported communi- 
cations with the divine were scrutinized more care- 
fully until the whole system passed away under the 
asgis of Rome. 

In spite of the final degeneracy of the oracles into 
real or apparent fraud and illusion they bore the 
reputation of exhibiting phenomena which invoked 



30 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the respect and consideration of many able minds. 
Plato gave them an important place in both his Re- 
public and Laws, his ideal and his practical state. 
As many of the oracles were supposed to be delivered 
in dreams and clairvoyance in some form, with a real 
or apparent accompaniment of oracular phenomena, 
even Aristotle admitted, reluctantly, perhaps, the 
existence of the supernormal. The Neo-Platonists 
dabbled in magic and theurgy, and their chief repre- 
sentative, Plotinus, experienced trances in which he 
thought he saw more deeply into the nature of things 
than his normal consciousness would permit. Plato 
thought that madness was the condition of discover- 
ing ultimate ti-uth. It is possible, or even probable, 
that men did not discriminate carefully between what 
was the result of priestly interpretation and what was 
oracular deliverance in thus accepting a genuine char- 
acter for some of the phenomena, but in the widely 
spread knowledge of these phenomena, not only in 
Greece but also in all nations, it would not be surpris- 
ing to find some of them claiming the respect even of 
the philosophers; and even the materialist in the 
Epicurean school admitted sufficient value in dreams 
to assert the existence of the gods upon them, though 
they placed them where they could not act on the 
physical order of the world. 

The sentiment of historians, ancient and modem. 
seems agreed that, on the whole, the influence of 
the oracles was for good. There will be no dis- 
puting, in this age, that they were associated with 
much that was dubious and absurd, if not positively 
harmful. But their practices yielded to the progress 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 31' 

of knowledge and were identified with the best as- 
pect of Attic and Dorian rehgion. They were es- 
pecially influential in uniting Greek institutions, and 
whether in light or darkness did something to pre- 
serve the poetic side of human life. If they had 
not, they would have probably not survived the 
earlier form of their manifestation. Delphi sur- 
vived to the last because it was better adjusted to 
the spirit of Greek religion, and in this it represented 
a conflict between the new and the old conception 
of the gods. It represented a spiritual communion 
with the divine as opposed to the older physical 
messages of Dodona. Apollo, the symbol of light 
and eternal youth, supplanted the colder majesty of 
Jupiter, and wherever art in sculpture, painting, 
and poetry could celebrate the triumph of a better 
over a ruder age, it paid its homage in temples, 
altars, and gifts to the oracles. 

" In the new temple at any rate, as rebuilt in 
historic times," says Mr. Myers, remarking on the 
victory of the Delphian over the Dodonean oracle, 
" the moral significance of the Apolline religion was 
expressed in unmistakable imagery. Even as ' four 
great zones of sculpture ' girded the hall of Camelot, 
the centre of the faith which was civilizing Britain, 
' with many a mystic s3nnbol ' of the victory of man, 
so over the portico of the Delphian god were painted 
or sculptured such scenes as told of the triumph of 
an ideal humanity over the monstrous deities which 
are the offspring of savage fear. 

" There was ' the light from the eyes of the twin 
faces ' of Leto's children ; there was Herakles with 



32 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

golden sickle, lolaus with burning brand, withering 
the heads of the dying Hydra, — ' the story,' says 
the girl in the Ion who looks thereon, ' which is sung 
beside my loom ; ' there was the rider of the winged 
steed slaying the fire-breathing Chimaera; there was 
the tumult of the giants' war ; Pallas lifting the aegis 
against Enceladus ; Zeus crushing Mimas with the 
great bolt fringed with flame, and Bacchus ' with his 
unwarlike ivy wand ' laying another of Earth's chil- 
dren low." 

But neither art nor their actual services to Greek 
civilization could save the oracles. They had their 
darker as well as their brighter side. It was not their 
ambiguous answers that decided their fate alone. 
Culture and knowledge made their revelations too 
trivial and ridiculous to inspire the confidence of the 
educated classes, no matter what they admitted of 
their supernormal phenomena. The universal reli- 
ance upon them brought every class to them for in- 
struction and guidance, and the ineradicable subjec- 
tion of the Greek mind to external nature in its 
philosophy, its art, and its religion drove its popu- 
lation to any and every source for providential aid. 
The oracles were the only accepted way to penetrate 
the mysterious veil that hides the supernal from the 
terrestrial world, and in bringing all classes of the 
population to their altars for every conceivable coun- 
sel and assistance, they debauched their own influence ; 
and this, with the dubious nature of many of the 
responses, set the pace for their decline. The ques- 
tions propounded to the oracles and found on tablets 
uncovered from the ruins of Delphi reveal the kind 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 33 

of guidance sought by worshippers and seekers after 
supernatural help. Plutarch, who lived at the end 
of the first century under the Emperor Trajan, wrote 
an essay on the " Cessation of the Oracles," in which 
he remarked this unpleasant characteristic of their 
performances. In conversation with some friends on 
the question of why the oracles had disappeared, he 
puts into the mouth of Didymus Planetiades, the 
Cynic, the following vigorous interruption of their 
dialogue. 

" Ho, ho ! A difficult problem, truly, one demand- 
ing much investigation, is what you come to bring us ; 
for it were a wonder, when so much wickedness is 
spread abroad, if not merely Modesty and Shame 
(as Hesiod said of old) should have abandoned man- 
kind, but if the divine Providence should not have 
packed up its oracles out of every quarter, and taken 
his departure! On the contrary, I propose to you 
to inquire how it was that oracles did not come to 
an end long ago, and why Hercules did not for a 
second time (or else some other of the gods) steal 
away the Tripod, all bewrayed as it was with filthy 
and impious questions that people propound to the 
deity; while some make trial of his cleverness, as 
though he were a sophist, others tease him with ques- 
tions about treasure-troves, successions to property, 
and illegal marriages; so that P3rthagoras is most 
signally confuted in saying that men are then at 
their best when they are going to worship the gods : 
in such way, those very thoughts and passions of the 
soul, which it were but decent to disclaim and to hide, 
if one's elder should be present, these same thoughts 



M ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

do they carrj naked and fully exposed into the pres- 
ence of the gods." 

But it was the rise and progress of intellectual cul- 
ture represented by philosophy that did more to 
cause the decline of the oracles than all other influ- 
ences. Some have tried to trace it to the decline in 
population, and Plutarch considered this. But he 
called attention to the fact that the oracles were still 
proportioned to population, but that they were not 
flourishing as they had been in the earlier period. 
No doubt Christianity and its attitude toward demo- 
niac possession and alleged communications with the 
dead had exercised a powerful influence in this direc- 
tion. If the philosophic movement and its scientific 
spirit as represented in Aristotle had taken up the 
subject instead of disparaging it, the oracles might 
have been longer in perishing, assuming that any- 
thing of scientific interest would have been found. 
But it was the cautious and sceptical attitude of 
philosophy that helped to cause their disappearance. 
The Greek reflective mind saw in the cosmos a fixed 
order, and in the reaction against polytheism, though 
it accepted a monotheistic view in the person of some 
of its best men, it placed, usually back of Jupiter, 
an agency which subjected to itself the will of all the 
gods. This was Fate, a name for an impersonal law 
and order which bound even the powers of the divine 
to its decrees. It was only a way of deifying Nature, 
or saying that personality had no place in its ultimate 
regulation. In the reign of polytheism men conceived 
the cosmic order as more or less capricious, at least, 
in some of its aspects. Whatever they ascribed to 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 35 

fate, they believed in the influence of the gods in the 
affairs of men, and sought to obtain their aid and 
interference through the oracles. They placed little 
or no reliance upon their own powers, but sought in 
every emergency the interposition of the divine. 

The Greek lived ever in the consciousness of ex- 
ternal restraints upon his liberty. He pined for free- 
dom, natural and political, and looked upon nature 
as he looked upon a tyrant; he sought to appease 
its anger by sacrifices, when he was religious, and 
either taught Stoicism or resigned himself to despair 
or a hopeless fate, when he was not religious. But 
before he had reached this condition in his civiliza- 
tion, and just as the rising scepticism was beginning 
to dissolve ancient institutions, a new philosophy 
arose which, if it did not save Greece, remained for 
a later age, and set up a rival influence to the ora- 
cles that dispensed with their services to man. It was 
the idealistic movement initiated by Socrates and de- 
veloped by Plato and Aristotle. Previous speculation 
had been cosmological or cosmocentric ; that is, seek- 
ing the causes and meaning of things from without, 
and presenting no opportunities for man to effect 
anything except by obedience to external powers. 
Man's chief virtues were not self -initiative and self- 
reliance, but obedience and submission. His politics 
taught him the same duties. The external world ruled 
his destiny and actions, and, if fortune did not put 
happiness in his way by accident, he could only mourn 
his ill luck and endure his sufferings. Socrates turned 
man's reflections upon himself. He made philosophy 
anthropocentric instead of cosmocentric, and inspired 



36 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the individual with self-reliance and self-confidence. 
The world was to be seen from within and not from 
without. What man obtained he won by his own 
efforts, it may be, against the adverse fortune of 
nature itself. He might be more than a Stoic. He 
might subject nature to himself instead of being its 
slave. He was to find his salvation from within and 
not from without. He must rely upon himself and 
not upon the gods. It took many centuries, of course, 
for this implication to work itself out into practical 
life and ideals, but it was there in the inception of 
the Socratic doctrine, and, when this independence of 
external nature united its tendencies with science and 
art in the domination of the human mind and taste, 
it dispensed with the need of oracles for seeking the 
aid of unseen forces. Man studied the laws of nature, 
and could regulate his own life and make his own 
predictions. Oracles, sacrifices, and religious rites 
were not necessary. Every man could be his own 
oracle, if he would but have knowledge. 

" Even while Polygnotus," says Mr. Myers again, 
" was painting the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi, 
a man was talking in the Athenian market-place, 
from whose powerful individuality, the most impress- 
ive which Greece had ever known, were destined to 
flow streams of influence which should transform 
every department of belief and thought. In tracing 
the history of the oracles we shall feel the influence 
of Socrates mainly in two directions: in his asser- 
tion of a personal and spiritual relation between man 
and the unseen world, an oracle not without us but 
within, and in his origination of the idea of science, 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES S7 

of a habit of mind which should refuse to accept any 
explanation of phenomena which failed to confer the 
power of predicting those phenomena or producing 
them anew. We shall find that, instead of the old 
acceptance of the responses as heaven-sent mysteries, 
and the old demands for prophetic knowledge or for 
guidance in the affairs of Hfe, men are more and 
more concerned with the questions : How can oracles 
be practically produced? and what relation between 
God and man do they imply? But first of all, the 
oracle which concerned Socrates himself, which de- 
clared him to be the wisest of mankind, is certainly 
one of the most noticeable ever uttered at Delphi. 
The fact that the man on whom the god had bestowed 
this extreme laudation, a laudation paralleled only 
by the mythical words addressed to Lycurgus, should 
a few years afterward have been put to death for 
impiety, is surely one of deeper significance than has 
often been observed. It forms an overt and impress- 
ive instance of that divergence between the law and 
the prophets, between the letter and the spirit, which 
is sure to occur in the history of all religions, and 
on the manner of whose settlement the destiny of each 
religion in turn depends. In this case the conditions 
of the conflict are striking and unusual. Socrates 
is accused of failing to honor the gods of the State, 
and of introducing new gods under the name of 
demons, or spirits, as we must translate the word, 
since the title of demon has acquired in the mouths 
of the Fathers a bad signification. He replies that 
he does honor the gods of the State as he understands 



68 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

them, and that the spirit that speaks with him is an 
agency which he cannot disavow." 

An " external " voice guided Socrates and served 
him as a personal oracle, but it did not tell him what 
he should do. The utmost it did was to warn him 
in critical situations as to what he should not do. 
The actions that were to make up his natural hfe 
were left to his own judgment, and the communication 
with unseen forces limited to restraints upon him in 
necessary and important crises. This power he ob- 
tained by knowledge of himself and things, the old 
oracles having been used as a corrective of ignorance. 
When Socrates went to consult the oracle of Delphi 
to test its character, that shrewd student of human 
nature answered in most pertinent language, " Know 
thj^self," and in that counsel signed its own death- 
warrant. So apt to the hfe and opinions of Socrates 
was this oracular response, that one would wish to 
believe it mythical, but it seems to have been histori- 
cal, and it reflects the intelligence of that agency 
which had governed the destiny of Greece for so 
many centuries. Had it foreseen the consequence of 
its own response, it would either have withheld its 
advice or joined with applause in the movement which 
brought man into a better knowledge of the laws 
of nature and his relation to it with the independence 
which his knowledge of himself brought with it. In 
any case, the scientific spirit emancipated man from 
the fear of the gods, which had so long held him in 
bondage. This fear and consciousness of their capri- 
ciousness was such a nightmare to Epicurus and 
Lucretius that they bent all their energies to put 



THE ANCIENT ORACLES 39 

them out of all providential relations to man and 
the world; but they offered no philosophy which 
could supply man with an ideal or confidence in him- 
self for struggle and achievement, and much less a 
divine with which each man might commune without 
consulting the oracles. 



J 



CHAPTER III 

CRYSTAL vision: HISTORY 

Crystal gazing, as it is called, is perhaps nearly 
as old as the consultation of oracles, and was per- 
haps as often sought as other agencies to obtain 
supposed knowledge of the unseen, present, past, or 
future. But of this in its place. For the present 
we must know what crystal gazing is. 

Crystal gazing is the simple act of looking into 
a crystal, glass of water, polished stone or wood, or 
other surface capable of reflecting light, with the 
consequence that various types of apparitions or hal- 
lucinations are produced. Sometimes an analogous 
phenomenon is produced by holding a shell to the 
ear, when auditory hallucinations occur. But most 
frequently the phenomena are visual effects of look- 
ing into a crystal, a mirror, or polished surface. 
What they are and what they mean will be the subject 
of later reflection. They are, however, phenomena of 
a wholly unpredictable character and apparently 
irrelevant to the cause which produces them. We 
have no a priori reason to expect that looking at a 
polished surface will produce such eff'ects, and, if 
we had, we are not able to predetermine what those 
effects will be. They are altogether capricious and 
without suggestiveness, as yet, of the real agency that 
gives rise to them. All that we know is that for thou- 

40 



CRYSTAL VISION: HISTORY 41 

sands of years peculiarly constituted persons have had 
the power to produce hallucinations of a certain kind 
in themselves by gazing into crystals. 

For the history of crystal gazing I shall have to 
depend almost wholly upon the material collected by 
Miss Goodrich-Freer, in her article in the Proceedmgs 
of the Society for Psychical Research, and much of 
it shall be told in her own woisds. Some of the mate- 
rial can be found in Mr. Myers' Human Personality 
and Its Swrvwal of Bodily Death. 

Its history, as I have remarked, is very old. The 
practice of it in some form was known three thousand 
years ago, and traces of it are found in Assyria, 
Greece, Rome, China, Japan, India, and possibly in 
some of the South Sea Islands. It appeared in the 
middle ages and reached its highest development in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, " finding its 
exponents among the learned physicians and mathe- 
maticians of the Courts of Elizabeth, the Italian 
princes, the Regent Catherine de Medici, and the 
Emperors Maximilian and Rudolph." It was used 
in these periods as an art of divination, one among 
the other forms of ascertaining what was not nor- 
mally revealed or known. 

" Among the Greeks," says Miss Goodrich-Freer, 
" various methods of divination by reflections on glass 
or water were used. 

" 1. Hydromancy. This was practised chiefly at 
Patras, a city on the seacoast of Achaia, where was 
a temple dedicated to Demeter. Before the temple 
was a fountain in which were delivered oracles, very 
famous for the truth of their predictions. These 



42 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

were not given on every account, but concerned only 
the events of diseases. The manner of consulting 
was this : they let down a mirror by a small cord into 
the fountain, so that the lower edge might just touch 
the surface of the water, but not be covered by it; 
this done, they offered incense and prayers to the 
goddess, then looked upon tlie mirror, and from vari- 
ous figures and images represented in it made con- 
jectures concerning the patient. 

" 2. Lecanomancy, divination by a bowl contain- 
ing water or a mixture of oil and wine. The Scholi- 
ast upon Lycophron believes this method to have been 
practised by Ulysses, and to have given occasion to 
the stories of his consultation with the ghost of 
Tiresias. 

" 3. Catoptromancy, in which mirrors were used 
without water. Sometimes it was performed in a 
vessel of water, the middle part of which was called 
gaster, and then the divination termed Gastromancy. 

" 4. Gastromancy. Glass vessels were used filled 
with clear water, and surrounded by torches. A 
demon was invoked, and a boy appointed to obser\^e 
whatever appearances arose by the demon's action 
upon the water. 

" 5. Onychomancy, * performed by the nails of an 
unpolluted boy, covered with oil and soot, which they 
turned to the sun, the reflection of whose rays were 
believed to represent, by certain images, the things 
they had a mind to be satisfied about.' 

" 6. Crystallomancy, ' performed by polished and 
enchanted crystals, in which future events were sig- 
nified by certain marks and figures.' '* 



CRYSTAL VISION: HISTORY 43 

We can well understand from such performances in 
those ages what incidents would make the scientific 
mind chary of an interest in oracles. In India mir- 
rors were used, and in some instances castor oil was 
poured into the hands of a child, who was expected 
to see visions of spirits and demons. In Polynesia, 
a hole was dug in the ground and it was filled with 
water, and the priest looked into this to discover the 
authors of thefts. Some Indians make their patients 
gaze into the water, in which they are supposed to see 
pictures of the food or medicine good for them. 
Among the Apaches the crystal was used to discover 
stolen property. 

Whether Joseph's cup was used for divination, as 
it was used by South Sea Islanders, is not assured, but 
we may suspect that Urim and Thummim was the 
result of practice in crystal vision. This suspicion 
is supported by the reference in the Persian poets to 
the " Cup of Giamschid, in which could be seen the 
whole world and all the things which were doing in 
it." Among the Romans Varro " tells a story of a 
child who was consulted as to the war of Mithridates, 
and children, we learn, were consulted by Fabius. It 
is also said that a child foresaw, by reading in a 
mirror, the issue of the contest between Severus and 
Tullius Crispinus, and revealed the prophecy to Di- 
dius Julianus, by whom the oracle was consulted." 

Casaubon tells a story of a monk putting a vase 
of water in the hands of a man who came to him, and 
the latter saw visions as a consequence. The Specu- 
larii were evidently named from their habit of inquir- 
ing into the future by the aid of a mirror, and seem 



44 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

to have had a large following in the middle ages. 
Thomas Aquinas mentions the phenomenon and at- 
tributes it to the Devil, but it continued down to the 
sixteenth century in spite of its condemnation. In 
the struggle between Francis I and Charles V the 
action of the French was said to have been influenced 
by a magician discovering in the reflections of a mir- 
ror the progress of events in Milan. Pico Mirandola, 
though a foe to astrology, admitted the fact of crys- 
tal visions. Aubrey refers to the practice in Italy, 
and the Earl of Denbigh mentions an observation 
of it in Venice. Bodin, an eminent lawyer in Tou- 
louse, refers to it. 

But it was John Dee who experimented and wrote 
most voluminously on crystallomancy. He was born 
in London in 1527, became a Fellow of Trinity Col- 
lege, Cambridge, and a mathematician of some repute. 
Some of his writing on Euclid, the reform of the cal- 
endar, and other matters are still extant. He was 
somewhat favored by Queen EHzabeth, and was ap- 
pointed Chancellor of St. Paul's, but on the accession 
of James I he fell under suspicion and retired. He 
died in 1608. 

He experimented in crystal vision with a boy named 
Kelly, about whom little is known except that he had 
a criminal character. This fact throws doubt upon 
the genuineness of the visions, which purported to 
represent in many cases discarnate spirits, though 
none were ever identified. It does not matter, how- 
ever, whether the boy could be trusted or not, as the 
history of the art does not involve the genuineness of 
any of its phenomena, but the fact of its practice. 



CRYSTAL VISION: HISTORY 45 

It is, of course, probable that the very abnormal 
character of the boy was favorable to the production 
of crystal hallucinations, and we should have no dif- 
ficulty in supposing their genuineness, though we had 
no criterion to distinguish between imagination and 
hallucination, on the one hand, and lying and hallu- 
cination on the other. There are some incidents re- 
ported in Dee's account of the experiment that would 
class the phenomena with the tricks of a " naughty 
boy." 

Some interesting facts and illustrations of crystal 
gazing are recorded by Boissard, in which we have 
the usual elements, — the mirror, incantations, and 
child seer; and one of the instances given is note- 
worthy as an example of clairvoyance, rather than of 
the spiritualistic flavor of the Dee stories. 

" A man having committed murder is fleeing from 
his country. On the way he goes to a magician for 
news of his wife. Incantations are performed, a child 
is called, and, looking in a mirror, describes a room, 
a lady, the details of her dress. She is flattening 
something in her palm, and laughs and talks with a 
young man who sits by. 

" The husband recognizes his wife, and the room 
she occupies, but not the young man, and, seized with 
jealousy, returns at the risk of his life to a village 
near home, whence he sends a messenger to his wife 
desiring an interview. The lady arrives, much re- 
joiced at the unexpected meeting, and, on being ques- 
tioned, gives an account of the scene described, which 
agrees in every particular, even as to the dress she 
was wearing at the time. The mysterious young man 



46 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

turns out to be the husband's brother, for whom she 
was preparing a plaster which she flattened between 
her hands." 

Revelation Hke this might have its uses in watch- 
ing the integrity of the family, but why did so capri- 
cious an informer as the crystal hit upon this rele- 
vant incident and not betray the murderer? The 
trouble is that the incident is reported from an age 
and possibly by persons whose judgment cannot be 
trusted. We may have only the opinions of the wit- 
ness and not the exact facts in the case. But true 
or false, the incident probably reports truthfully 
enough the habits of the age, and that suffices to show 
the persistence of the phenomena under review. 

Another story reports a like piece of detective 
work. " De I'Ancre gives a somewhat similar story 
of a jealous husband, to whom a magician, reading 
in a glass, describes a scene which induces him to 
return home at once, to find that his wife had broken 
her arm, which had been set by a surgeon monk, the 
sight of whom had caused so much unnecessary anxi- 
ety." Ben Jonson mentions the art, and a Mr. Comp- 
ton, said to have been a physician of some note, 
proved to a patient that he had power to descry in 
the crystal things going on at a distance, if the report 
of his experiment can be accepted. A later and, per- 
haps, more authentic example of crystal gazing is 
given by Saint Simon (1675-1755) in his Memoirs. 
He states that a crystal gazer told the Duke of Or- 
leans of the fate of the princes through whose death 
he obtained the position of Regent of France. The 
vision was by a young girl and by means of a glass 



CRYSTAL VISION: HISTORY 47 

of water. Mrs. De Morgan, wife of Professor De 
Morgan, the logician, at Cambridge University, in 
comparatively recent times, reports her knowledge 
of the phenomena. She remarked that in some cases 
it produced something like a hypnotic condition. This 
apparently, however, is not general. 

In more recent times attention has been called to 
its occurrence in modem Egypt, and there was some 
discussion of it in the now extinct serial called the 
Zoisty with indications that the phenomena created 
some excitement in Lancashire about the middle of 
the last century (1850). " An interesting experi- 
ment, made in 1869, has recently been recorded by 
Mr. Dawson Rogers (Light, March 16, 1889). He 
relates that he put a crystal into the hands of a lady, 
to whom its use was quite unknown, who, after gazing 
into it a short time, minutely described a scene, in 
which a lecturer, apparently an Englishman, was 
addressing an audience, while behind a chair stood 
the spirit of a North American Indian, who seemed, 
to some extent, to inspire his discourse. Some months 
later the lady was by chance introduced to the United 
States consul at Trebizond, whom she recognized as 
the subject of her vision, and who believed it to refer 
to some occasion when he had given an address in that 
town. He also stated that other Spiritualist seers had 
given similar descriptions of the Indian spirit." 

This last incident is one that purports to have some 
authenticity and intimation of supernormal knowl- 
edge, just as do many of the historical and tradi- 
tional instances. Unfortunately, it does not seem to 
have had any such record as is necessary to impress 



48 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the scientific mind, since it waited for twenty years 
to get on paper, and memory may have distorted the 
facts beyond recognition. But this is no place to 
examine its credentials, as every scientific man can 
do that for himself. I am interested in its recent 
character and the fairly authentic report of the inci- 
dent as a whole, even though the important details 
should prove untrustworthy. True or false, it rep- 
resents well enough the nature of these reputed phe- 
nomena from the earliest times, and if it should be 
acceptable as containing actual clairvoyant knowl- 
edge, though it is not evidentially valuable, it would 
render credible some of the marvellous stories of an- 
tiquity, whose truth need not be accepted as told us 
to admit their genuineness as psychological facts, 
though distorted by time and misinterpretation. 

I doubt not that further inquiries by careful stu- 
dents would unearth much more than has come to the 
attention of the few whom I have here quoted, as 
such stories as have survived the fate of the " super- 
natural " in the struggle with scientific scepticism 
are only surface indications of what was perhaps 
much more plentiful than we now know. At any rate, 
we have given sufficient evidence that the phenomena 
of crystal visions are older and more numerous than 
the average man would even suspect, and that suf- 
fices to show that any claims now made for their 
reality and scientific interest are not to be contemned 
on the ground that they are illusory claims. They 
seem to have a history and lineage quite as important 
as any of the beliefs that were associated with their 
occurrence. What they mean we may not know, but 



CRYSTAL VISION: HISTORY 49 

this is no reason for not trying to ascertain it. We 
should never have known anything about physiology 
or psychology, if we had not studied their residual 
phenomena. 



CHAPTER IV 

CRYSTAL gazing: EXPERIMENTS 

The present known facts of crystal vision are no 
less like a Walpurgis night's dream than are those 
which tradition has brought down to us, though we 
have recorded them in a much more scientific spirit, 
in so far as there has been any opportunity for it. 
The great defect of all the work of antiquity is that 
it reported so little and recorded less. The properly 
scientific spirit did not exist until very recent times. 
This spirit concerns itself with facts regardless of 
theoretical explanations and consequences. It does 
not first determine the value and meaning of a fact, 
and then save it, but saves it with or without any per- 
ceived importance. Antiquity had no such morals. 
Where it interested itself in exceptional facts at all, 
it was the " supernatural " that induced the preserva- 
tion of them and only such as seemed to confirm that 
belief. The philosophic mind, perhaps in fear of dis- 
turbing the stability of its theories, would not notice 
any of them, significant or unsignificant. Ancient 
philosophy ignored all it could not explain consist- 
ently with its superficial theories, and hence all excep- 
tional and residual phenomena escaped its alembic. 

The same spirit is true of certain schools to-day. 
They cannot bear the light of facts which disturb the 
course of their dreams. They will accept only one 
will-o'-the-wisp, and that is the " natural." But 

60 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 51 

science will have the facts and adjusts its theories to 
them, and records these facts conscientiously, regard- 
less of its wishes, and searching for what it does not 
obtain. The consequence of this difference between 
ancient and modem times is that we have a more 
accurate knowledge of what actually occurs. All that 
comes to us of ancient times consists of the facts, real 
or supposed, which were of special interest or were 
supposed to be remarkable. The facts which might 
have thrown Hght upon the whole mass of phenomena 
were treated as negligible, and we have for modern 
perusal a uniform report of miraculous events which 
are as incredible as most of ancient lore steeped in 
mysticism. And knowing, too, that antiquity never 
knew how to report facts, but only theories and inter- 
pretations, we might even discount their commonplace 
events. All that comes to us is but an evidence of 
a resemblance between the past and the present in 
their general character, and it is left to us to deter- 
mine the real nature of the past by what we can ascer- 
tain of the present. 

In recent years, and especially since the founding 
of the Society for Psychical Research, the interest in 
such phenomena has so increased that a fair record 
of the facts can be obtained wherever there is any 
realization of their importance. But not many have 
yet experimented with them. The consequence is that 
all explanations of them are still held in abeyance 
until we know more about the conditions of their oc- 
currence and the characteristics that determine them. 
By making such records as have been made, and with- 
out discriminating, as former ages did, between those 



52 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

that had a practical or supernormal and those which 
had no such importance, we have found that many of 
them are traceable like many other phenomena to 
subconscious mental activities and memories thus 
brought to the surface. It is this fact which gives 
them a scientific interest not observed by the ancients, 
and at the same time connects them with the known 
phenomena of mind. I shall have more to say of 
this point as the examination of them proceeds. I 
merely call attention to the circumstance as an evi- 
dence of the value attaching to scientific observation 
and records of all that occurs, and not merely the 
more striking facts which superficially indicate super- 
normal events. 

The history and associations of crystal gazing show 
a belief that its phenomena are of the " supernat- 
ural," or what psychic research has preferred to call 
the supernormal, to distinguish merely that the facts 
are not explicable in the ordinary way. But in what 
is to be said of them here there is to be no implica- 
tion whatever that they are even supernormal. We 
shall find that many of the phenomena are not that 
in any respect, however curious or inexplicable they 
may be. The appearance of their supernormal, or 
even " supernatural," character in past history was 
due entirely to the neglect of those instances which 
were resurrected memories of the seer or crystal 
gazer. We have learned to observe these as carefully 
as we do the more inexplicable instances, and the 
result is a better articulation of the facts with our 
existing knowledge. 

In this chapter I shall largely confine myself to 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 53 

the quotation of instances with such comments as will 
make their general character clear. It will not be 
easy to adopt any hard and fast classification of them, 
as the different types often interpenetrate. But there 
are certain classes of them that are fairly distinct. 
They are such as are evidently the resurrection of 
past experiences, whether recognized or not, such as 
are the product of mere fancy or imagination, and 
such as purport to have some supernormal character- 
istics, whether telepathic, clairvoyant, or apparently 
messages from the discarnate. I shall endeavor to 
select the instances with this general classification in 
mind, though there may be some instances in one or 
the other of these types that do not have their real 
nature assuredly ascertained. I shall select first my 
own experiments with a lady whose name I have to 
conceal. She is the wife of an orthodox clergyman 
on whom I reported to the Society for Psychical Re- 
search some years ago. I had received from her a 
narrative of many coincidental experiences, some of 
them at least apparently supernormal, and it occurred 
to me that I should try crystal gazing with her. She 
consented and made notes of exactly what she saw. 
I give the list in full, without any comments as to 
their character until they have been given. They 
occurred in 1895 on dates mentioned in the record. 
I shall call the lady Mrs. D. 

1. Resurrected Memories 
February 12th 

1. An iceberg floating in the water. 

2. A sunset view, with the observer looking over 



r. 



'64 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

a hill upon a bank of clouds surrounding the setting 
sun. 

3. A human head lying on a pillow and with the 
mouth wide open. 

4. The face of Mrs. D.'s mother. 

5. A woman and child lying in bed with face un- 
covered and bedclothes pulled up to the neck. 

6. An interesting and complicated scene compris- 
ing a house resembling one in which a relative of 
Mrs. D. lived and which was partly concealed by a 
ledge of cliff rocks that were not connected with this 
relative's house; one gable end of the house seemed 
to have fallen in or to have been cut open, and vari- 
ous people, including men, women, and children, were 
coming out through this opening and returning into 
it. To the left of the house were two tall objects like 
posts. No faces were recognized in the vision of the 
people. 

7. The entrance to a cemetery, which resembled 
the cemetery known by Mrs. D. at her old home in 
Ohio. But the appearance of it, beyond the gate and 
wall with some of the tombstones and monuments, rep- 
resented it as different from what it was when Mrs. D. 
knew it. 

8. A person kneeling before a covered bier, and 
a face looking over the bier toward the one kneeling 
before it. 

9. A face with a large nose and thin sunken lips. 

MarcTi 20th 

10. The face of a Mr. X., who had been Mrs. D.'s 
pastor in P , Ohio, and whom Mrs. D. had not 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 55 

seen for fifteen years until within two or three years 
of date of vision, and then had frequently seen him 
since. But he appeared as he had been known in 
Ohio. When the face appeared, the eyes were closed, 
the mouth open, and the teeth gnashing. The vision 
was not very clear at first, but when it developed into 
distinctness Mrs. D. involuntarily exclaimed : " Why, 
Mr. X." But when the crystal was turned the face 
vanished quickly and other unrecognized faces took 
its place. Before Mr. X.'s face appeared, however, 
there was a shght picture of a cemetery which could 
be described only as an indistinct dream. 

April 6th 

11. A lady playing a piano. 

12. A lady holding an infant, and a child near by 
looking at the infant. 

13. A street with pavement and houses, and a child 
knocking at a white door. 

14. A lady standing at the left of an open trunk, 
holding up the lid with the right hand and stooping 
over to take something with the left hand. The posi- 
tion seemed very unusual to Mrs. D. 

15. A little boy holding a baby in his arms. 

16. A child lying asleep on a bed. 

17. A man lying on a bed with a diamond stud in 
his shirt bosom, and his head concealed from view by 
the headboard. Behind the bed stood a mirror or 
screen, and on the wall hung a picture. 

18. A man propped up in bed by a pillow and try- 
ing to write. 



56 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

April 8th 

19. A landscape representing a field, and cow-path 
entering under a pair of bars into another field, with 
trees, bushes, and stones on the right side of the 
bars. 

20. A most interesting instance of a room with 
tiling on the floors and on one of the walls. The 
other wall was in shadow, apparently caused by 
streaming sunlight passing through a colored glass 
window deeply set in the wall near the comer of the 
room. Into this stream of light suddenly flew a 
dove. The scene was a very brilHant one and re- 
sembled a fine painting of a corner of a mediaeval 
castle or church. The tiling on the wall had cross 
marks in the pieces. 

SI. An abrupt, rocky, and dark cliffy, somewhat 
resembling an island, with clefts at the left hand; 
through these the sun shone upon some water and 
in the face of a man who was in the act of rising 
from his lying posture. 

22. The head and face of a man wearing a bushy 
beard and hair. 

23. A bridge across a moat or canal with shipping 
and houses beyond, such as are often seen in large 
cities. 

As the visions did not represent any evidence of 
the supernormal and as Mrs. D. experienced a strong 
tendency to go into a sleep or trance when she looked 
into the crystal she resolved to discontinue the ex- 
periments. The mere description of the incidents 
suffices to suggest the origin of the visions, which 
were as clear as reahty. On being questioned at the 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 57 

time Mrs. D. could not recall experiences that would 
account for any of the instances as resurrected memo- 
ries, except those which explain themselves as that. 
It is apparent that some of them are mosaics of dif- 
ferent experiences which never occurred as wholes 
according to the representation of the crystal. It 
appears that the visions were spontaneous fabrica- 
tions of the subconscious action of the mind, based 
upon imperfectly reproduced memories. 

That this is the probable explanation is apparent 
in the most interesting one of all of them, namely, 
the twentieth, that of the church, sunlight, and dove. 
Mrs. D. could remember no picture that would sug- 
gest it and had not been in any gallery where a simi- 
lar picture might be seen. I have seen in a Euro- 
pean gallery one quite resembling it, except in the 
incident of the dove flying in the sunbeams. When 
Mrs. D. indicated that she could recall no picture 
like it, Mr. D. spoke up and said that they had a 
Bible, and had had it for a long time, on which was 
just such a picture, a dove in rays of light. Mrs. 
D. then recalled the book, but could not remember 
that she had noticed or thought of the picture. But 
granting this source of one or two features in the 
vision there were those not suggested by the picture 
on the Bible, and hence we have indications of a 
mosaic either of other forgotten memories or of fab- 
ricated scenes, such as the imagination will produce 
in dreams. 

Two other visions have a coincidental interest, that 
referring to the cemetery in Ohio, No. 7, and that 
referring to a man propped up in bed and trying 



<r. 



58 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

to write, No. 18. Some six months after this vision, 
Mrs. D. visited her old home in Ohio, and remember- 
ing what her crystal visions were and having found 
a postal card soon after the occurrence of No. 18 
saying that her brother was ill and propped up in 
bed trying to write just about the time the vision 
took place, she resolved to go and see the old ceme- 
tery ; especially as she ascertained from her sister 
that the brother had not been expected to live and 
that they had been thinking of his possible burial 
in this cemetery, which, by the way, was not the 
family cemetery ; this being another one now in a 
dilapidated condition. Mrs. D. went to see the ceme- 
tery, and was surprised to find it as she had seen it 
in the crystal. The changes apparent in the vision 
had actually taken place since she had seen it some 
years before. 

These instances are the only ones representing co- 
incidences that suggest telepathy, though they are 
far from being in any respect evidence of it. They 
suggest it because two or three features of the two 
visions were actually in the minds of Mrs. D.'s 
sister and brother about the time of the visions. But 
we should require much more to convince us that there 
was anything supernormal in the phenomena; espe- 
cially when the others bear such apparent marks of 
being mosaics of memory. 

Another experience of Mrs. D. which was not a 
crystal vision was so much like it that it should be 
quoted in this connection, because it throws light upon 
the probability that the incidents that I have narrated 
were resurrected memories unrecognized. I quote 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 59 

my account of it given in the article already indi- 
cated. 

Mrs. D., living in Brooklyn, used often to have 
an apparition or visual hallucination of a bright blue 
sky overhead, a garden with a walled fence, and a 
peculiar chain pump in the garden situated at the 
back of the house. Mrs. D. attached no significance 
to the vision, but took it for one of the many automa- 
tisms that occurred almost daily without the crystal. 
But after this experience she paid a visit to her old 
home in Ohio, and accidentally made the acquaintance 
of a lady who invited her to take tea with her. She 
went, and after tea remarked that she would like to 
have a drink of water. The lady of the house re- 
marked : " All right, let us go out into the garden 
and get a fresh drink from the well." They went, 
and behold, here was the identical blue sky, high 
fence, and chain pump which Mrs. D. had seen so 
often in her vision! After going home in the eve- 
ning, Mrs. D. told her mother what her experience 
had been and how it coincided with what she had seen 
at the house. Her mother replied that when she, Mrs. 
D., was a little girl, about two or three years old, 
she used to visit this house very frequently with her, 
the mother. The source of this spontaneous appari- 
tion is evident. 

I tried a crystal once with my little boy, and he 
saw a number of visions, the most striking of which 
was a fire connected with a building. It was notice- 
able that it developed from an obscure to a clear 
apparition. He was not sure at first what it was. 
It was his peculiar occupation with it and surprise 



60 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

that stood as evidence of a real hallucination on the 
occasion. I had no evidence that it was either coin- 
cidental with any event or a recrudescence of a mem- 
ory. 

Miss Goodrich-Freer is one of the best crystal 
seers on record, though this judgment may be based 
more on the completeness of her record than on any 
real superiority to historical cases. I quote some 
instances from her, illustrating this resurrection of 
memories not at first recognized, and in some cases 
not at all, but traceable to previous experience on the 
ground of inference from what must have been the 
fact. The instances themselves will indicate this. 

On one occasion, she says : " I had been occupied 
with accounts ; I opened a drawer to take out my 
banking-book. My hand came in contact with the 
crystal, and I welcomed the suggestion of a change 
of occupation. However, figures were still upper- 
most, and the crystal had nothing more attractive 
to show me than the combination 7694. Dismissing 
this as probably the number of the cab I had driven 
in that day, or a chance grouping of the figures with 
which I had been occupied, I laid aside the crystal 
and took up my banking-book, which I had certainly 
not seen for months, and found, to my surprise, that 
the number on the cover was 7694." 

Another instance indicates how crystal gazing 
might, in some cases, be a means of recalling what 
is wanted, though general experience shows that it 
is not a reliable agency for this purpose. This illus- 
tration, however, shows that it worked for once at 
least. " I had carelessly destroyed a letter without 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 61 

preserving the address of my correspondent. I knew 
the county, and, searching in a map, recognized the 
name of the town, one unfamiliar to me, but which 
I was sure I should know when I saw it. But I had 
no clue to the name of the house or street, till at last 
it struck me to test the value of the crystal as a means 
of recalling forgotten knowledge. A very short 
inspection supplied me with ' H. House ' in grey 
letters on a white ground, and, having nothing better 
to suggest from any other source, I risked posting 
my letter to the address so strangely supplied. A 
day or two brought me an answer, headed H. House 
in grey letters on a white ground." 

Miss Goodrich-Freer calls attention to one interest- 
ing experiment which brought out a vision that was 
unrecognizable, but which a few days afterward was 
found to represent a spot that she had passed but 
had not consciously noticed in her absorbing conver- 
sation with a friend at the time. I suspect, however, 
that we might conjecture in this case that she had 
consciously noticed it and that amnesia or oblivis- 
cence had occurred. We have to be cautious in such 
instances that we are not burdening perception and 
memory with subliminal impressions. This objection, 
however, will hardly apply to two other cases which 
are certainly remarkable and which indicate the neces- 
sity of supposing a memory for subliminal impres- 
sions as an alternative to a theory of their super- 
normal source, assuming, of course, that we shall not 
discredit her statement of the facts. There seems 
no reason for doubting this. 

" I saw in the crystal a pool of blood (as it seemed 



62 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

to me) lying on the pavement at the comer of a ter- 
race close to my home. This suggested nothing to 
me. Then I remembered that I had passed over that 
spot in the course of a walk of a few hundred yards 
home from the circulating hbrary ; and that, the 
street being empty, I had been looking into the books 
as I walked. Afterward I found that my boots and 
the bottom of my dress were stained with red paint, 
which I must have walked through unobservingly dur- 
ing the short trajet just described." 

" I saw in the crystal a young girl, an intimate 
friend, waving to me from her carriage. I observed 
that her hair, which had hung down her back when 
I last saw her, was now put up in young lady fash- 
ion, the look of which I knew very well. But next 
day I called on my friend, was reproached by her 
for not observing her as she passed, and perceived 
that she had altered her hair in the way which the 
crystal had shown." 

In both these experiments we have evidences of 
subliminal impressions recalled to the normal con- 
sciousness by the crystal. The next one, which is 
a similar incident, is a most remarkable one, espe- 
cially for the dilemma it proposes for us. 

'' It was suggested to me one day last September 
that I should look into the crystal with the intention 
of seeing wordsy which had at that time formed no 
part of my experience. I was immediately rewarded 
by the sight of what was obviously a newspaper an- 
nouncement, in the t^^pe familiar to all in the first 
column of the Times (London). It reported the 
death of a lady, at one time a very frequent visitor 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 65 

in mj circle, and very intimate with some of my near- 
est friends ; an announcement, therefore, which, had 
I consciously seen it, would have interested me consid- 
erably. I related my vision at breakfast, quoting 
name, date, place, and an allusion to ' a long period 
of suffering * borne by the deceased lady, and added 
that I was sure that I had not heard any report of 
her illness or even, for some months, any mention of 
her likely to suggest such an hallucination. I was, 
however, aware that I had the day before taken up 
the first sheet of the Times, but was interrupted be- 
fore I had consciously read any announcement of 
death. Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, with whom I was stay- 
ing, immediately sought for the paper, where we dis- 
covered the paragraph almost exactly as I had seen it. 
We each recorded our own share in the circumstance, 
and carefully preserved the newspaper cutting." 

The coincidence in this case, assuming that some 
peculiar amnesia had not actually obliterated the con- 
scious reading of the obituary, and supported by the 
testimony of Mrs. Sidgwick, is so great that we have 
either to admit the memory of subliminal impressions, 
or to suppose something supernormal, or that the 
narrator is lying. There is no reason to suspect the 
last, as Miss Groodrich-Freer's experiences are too 
well vouched for to suppose it. Consequently, we 
have to choose between the supernormal and the re- 
crudescence of subliminal impressions. The case is 
specially interesting for its coincidence with the death 
of the friend whose obituary notice was thus read, 
as in any other age the incident would have been 
given a spiritistic interpretation. 



64 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

It is apparent in some of the illustrations given 
that the normal laws of association act in the repro- 
duction of the past. This is well illustrated in the 
following incidents bj the same authority. 

" It had occurred to me to write down some verses 
which I had once learnt some years ago and which 
I knew I should not recover should I forget them. 
I had no difficulty in recalling what I believed to be 
a correct version, and was therefore, at first, surprised 
to read in the crystal, a few days later, one verse, in 
which occurred the following line: 

" ' Clear by the mountain torrent, and soft by the lonely tarn,' 

while I had written, and certainly long beHeved it to. 
be, ' Clear to the mountain echo, and sweet by the 
moorland tarn.' I believe the former to be the cor- 
rect version, not only because the antithesis was char- 
acteristic of the style of the writer, but also because, 
as forming part of the description of a voice, this 
edition obviously conveys more meaning. 

" The question of association, as in all cases of 
memory, plays an active part in this class of crystal 
vision. One of my earliest experiences was of a 
picture, perplexing and wholly unexpected, — a 
quaint old chair, an old hand, a worn black coat 
sleeve resting on the arm of the chair, — slowly 
recognized as a recollection of a room in a country 
vicarage, which I had not entered and but seldom 
recalled since I was a child of ten. But whence came 
this vision? What association has conjured up this 
picture? What have I done to-day? At length the 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 65 

clue is found. I have to-day been reading Dante, 
first enjoyed with the help of our dear old vicar 
many a year ago." 

The manner in which these influences will fetch up 
from the utmost depths of memory some remote ex- 
perience and even use interpretative agencies in deter- 
mining the result is well illustrated in an experience 
of one of Professor Binet's friends. As he was pass- 
ing a restaurant he was surprised to see on the glass 
door the words " verbascum thapsus." He turned 
back to look at it and found the word " bouillon " 
there and not " verbascum thapsus." Now the popu- 
lar French name for the plant verbascum, English 
mullein, is homllon hlanc. Here the impression in 
the subliminal of the real word " bouillon " on the 
glass was its natural associate and this emerged as 
an hallucination, the real sensory impression having 
been suppressed. I recur to another instance by Miss 
Goodrich-Freer, illustrating the almost limitless reach 
of memory and its capricious action under the influ- 
ence of the crystal. 

" One day I had been seeking a medical prescrip- 
tion which I had failed to find among my papers. 
After looking in many places, likely and unlikely, I 
concluded it had been accidentally destroyed, and 
dismissed the matter from my thoughts. Some hours 
later, without having consciously thought of my 
search meanwhile, I was occupied with the crystal, 
which, after presenting me with one or two pictures, 
suddenly showed a paper which by its color and gen- 
eral appearance I recognized as the one in question. 
On further inspection, however, I observed, without 



ee ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

being able to read the words, that the prescription was 
in the handwriting, not of mj doctor, but of my 
friend E. As I have never yet found any crystal 
vision to be absolutely without meaning, or deceptive 
in any particular, I resolved to follow up this indi- 
cation in the only way which occurred to me, and 
finally found my lost prescription accidentally folded 
within one of E.'s letters, where it had remained, I 
have reason to believe, for more than four years. I 
may add that E. is a very frequent correspondent; 
that this particular letter had been preserved quite 
by accident, and that there was no possible connec- 
tion of ideas, either of time or place, between the 
two documents." 

No instance could better illustrate the infinite ca- 
pacity of memory than this one, and the most inter- 
esting feature of it is the blending of Miss E.'s hand- 
writing with the hallucination representing the pre- 
scription and the paper on which it had been written. 
In this case it appears to have been necessary for the 
discovery of the lost article, and hence a certain kind 
of inteUigence apropos of the end desired is displayed 
to produce a quasi sensation pointing to the desired 
object where the ordinary mnemonic process was not 
adequate to the reproduction. 

Another instance of subliminal interpretation con- 
tains remarkable material and should be quoted. 

" On March 20th, I happened to want the date 
of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which I could not recall, 
though f eehng sure that I knew it, and that I asso- 
ciated it with some event of importance. When look- 
ing in the crystal some hours later, I found a picture 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 6T 

of an old man with long white hair and beard, dressed 
like a Lyceum Shjlock, and busy writing in a large 
book with tarnished massive clasps. I wondered much 
who he was, and what he could possibly be doing, and 
thought it a good opportunity of carrying out a 
suggestion which had been made to me of examining 
objects in the crystal with a magnifying- glass. The 
glass revealed to me that my old gentleman was writ- 
ing in Greek, though the lines faded away as I looked, 
all but the characters he had last traced, the Latin 
numerals LXX. Then it flashed into my mind that 
he was one of the Jewish elders at work on the 
Septuagint, and that its date, 277 b. c, would serve 
equally well for Ptolemy Philadelphus ! It may be 
worth while to add, though the fact was not in my 
conscious memory at the moment, that I had once 
learnt a chronology on a mnemonic system which sub- 
stituted letters for figures, and that the memoria 
technica for this date was, ' Now Jewish elders indite 
a Greek copy.' " 

This is certainly one of the most remarkable inci- 
dents of subhminal play involving intelligence that 
we can imagine. The links that would make the con- 
nection intelligible are omitted, but that there was 
an intelligent action involved in reproducing what 
the normally conscious clue could not suggest is quite 
apparent, and shows a tendency to substitution and 
selection which certainly parallels very well the most 
striking instances of conscious association and inter- 
pretation. 

There is a large number of crystal visions which 
are usually called fanciful, implying that they are 



68 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

imaginary constructions by the mind. This influence 
is quite apparent in many of the phenomena, but the 
traces of memory so often appear as mixed with them 
that one can suppose rather safely that the whole is 
a mosaic of past experiences. The last instance 
quoted from Miss Goodrich-Ereer clearly illustrates 
this action. If one incident is recognized and another 
is not, the temptation is to assign the unrecognized 
feature to fancy while we explain the other by the 
resurrection of remembered incidents. But when we 
find that the mind makes mosaics of its experience 
without always recognizing the past, we may well 
conjecture that all the unrecognized incidents repre- 
sent real experiences, but are subject to the plastic 
power of subliminal analysis and reconstruction or 
resynthesis. The reconstructed whole, as such, will be 
new enough and may well be called a fancy. But 
while thus describing it we cannot lose sight of the 
place which past experience has in supplying the ele- 
ments out of which the whole is made. 

In illustration of these facts we have the crystal 
experiences of Mrs. Verrall, as they are not so recog- 
nizably past memories as they appear. They are, 
in some cases, not so clear as Miss Goodrich-Freer's, 
and often the crystal acted only as an associative 
stimulus to recall facts that would not spontaneously 
recur. Mrs. Verrall was a lecturer at Newnham Col- 
lege, Cambridge, England, and is known to the classi- 
cal world as the translator of Pausanias, according 
to the statement of Mr. Frederic W. H. Myers. For 
the peculiarities of her experiences with the crystal 
I quote her own statements. They were undertaken 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 69 

at the instigation of Mr. Myers, Mrs. Verrall never 
having thought of trying this means of experiment- 
ing with her sensitive mind, though she has had a 
remarkable number of other interesting psychical ex- 
periences, some of them being probably supernormal. 
" I have tried," says Mrs. Verrall, " various objects 
in crystal gazing, such as a cut crystal, a globular 
crystal, a glass paper-weight, and a glass full of 
water, and I find no difference in their efficacy. I 
have also tried under varying conditions of hght, 
with the conclusion that a dim hght is the most likely 
to result in the seeing of a picture. I have sometimes 
seen pictures in quite bright light, but never in abso- 
lute darkness. Often I see nothing at all but the 
bright points of Hght in the crystal, and often I see 
nothing in the crystal, but get a mental picture sug- 
gesting something I have forgotten to do. Indeed, 
I find crystal gazing a very convenient way of recall- 
ing things forgotten, but in that case I see nothing 
in the crystal. The difference between a picture in 
the crystal and a mental picture is quite marked, but 
difficult to describe ; it will perhaps help to show what 
I mean if I say that the recalled image of what I have 
seen in the crystal differs as much from the actual 
image as the mental image of a person differs from 
the actual person. I believe that with me the crystal 
picture is built up from bright points in the crystal, 
as they sometimes enter into it ; but the picture, when 
once produced, has a reality which I have never been 
able to obtain when looking into the fire or trying 
to call up an imaginary scene with my eyes shut. 
It has occasionally happened that I have been able 



70 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

to see more on closer investigation than on the first 
glance, but if I try to interpose a magnifying-glass 
between my eye and the crystal the picture instantly 
goes and only recollection remains. The following 
case is almost the only one where I have seen a real 
person, and here the picture grew distinct as I looked. 

" I saw a black object which defined itself into the 
head of a man ; then I saw that it was my husband's 
head turned nearly profile toward my left. Behind it 
was a square-backed chair of brown leather. He was 
reading, his eyes being on a book, which I could not 
see. I tried to see the whole figure, in order to know 
what the book was, and shut my eyes. On opening 
them I saw the whole figure for a moment, but it was 
too small for me to distinguish anything. In a mo- 
ment the head came back, and I had an impression 
that the book was red, though I could not see it." 

The most interesting statement in this passage is 
that about the use of the crystal in recalling forgot- 
ten things, though when used for this object there 
is no real vision or hallucination. Some further illus- 
trations of Mrs. Verrall's experiments show a most 
interesting tendency to spontaneous analysis where 
Miss Goodrich-Freer's visions would have suggested 
a more simple process. That is, Mrs. Verrall's ex- 
periences in some instances show that success in get- 
ting clear visions or hallucinations involved the co- 
operation of several functions which are not suggested 
by those of Miss Goodrich-Freer. But for the crys- 
tal we should hardly suspect the existence of in- 
termediate mental acts between memory pictures and 
hallucinations on the one hand^ and between reality 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 71 

and hallucinations on the other. The complications, 
however, show us what we have to deal with in alleged 
supernormal activities. 

Some further instances of Mrs. Ver rail's crystal 
visions are noticeable for the existence in them of 
motion or movement, if these terms can accurately 
describe a feature of them. I quote Mrs. Verrall's 
notes. 

" Saw a sphere in circle, only upper half visible 
— suggested globe on stand. Then the thing turned 
aslant and the outer ring was fiery, the sphere black, 
outer ring revolving, sphere apparently still; pres- 
ently I saw that the sphere was also revolving." A 
still more beautiful one was the following. " Land- 
scape, large piece of still water in evening light, 
beyond it mountains and hills, two snowy peaks, one 
sharply defined dark hill in front — open space on 
right of mountains. Steamer passing from right to 
left till it touched shore and was lost to sight." 

There is one most interesting instance which indi- 
cates the presence of other and associated subliminal 
activities going on at the time of the vision and ex- 
hibiting the same " message " as in the crystal. It 
was on the second occasion in which Mrs. Verrall had 
tried crystal gazing. 

" I had been trying to obtain automatic writing 
while looking in the crystal. I was also wondering 
who had put a pair of lost scissors in a very con- 
spicuous place, where I had just found them. I saw 
a name written, and found that my right hand had 
written the same name ; it was a name likely to occur 
to me." 



72 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

The incident ought to have included a clearer note 
on the relation of this name to the misplaced scissors. 
If relevant it indicates subliminal inference and mem- 
ory ; if not relevant, a dissociated memory. But the 
interesting point is the unity between visual and motor 
functions in revealing the same facts. 

The Countess of Radnor reported to Mr. Myers a 
case of considerable interest, in that a group of other 
psychic experiences accompanied, as in the cases of 
Mrs. Verrall and Miss Goodrich-Freer, the power of 
crystal vision. The case is reported under the pseu- 
donym of Miss A. Her first trial of the crystal 
occurred on the occasion of a conversation with some 
friend at a social function when she heard for the 
first time what crystal gazing was, though she was 
already familiar with automatic writing. In this 
instance Miss A. reports : " Two or three of us looked 
in glasses of water, and after a little while I seemed 
to see at the bottom of my glass a small gold key. 
This was so distinct that I looked at the table-cloth, 
thinking that there must be a real key there. There 
was none and nothing to explain what I saw." Of 
the general characteristics of her visions induced by 
the crystal she says : " Sometimes the things which 
I see are interesting, and sometimes just the reverse; 
sometimes true and sometimes not. If I wish to see 
a particular person, I cannot do so, but I probably 
see something quite different. I cannot tell if what 
I am seeing is past, present, or future. I do not 
think that the pictures have anything to do with what 
I read and see in the ordinary way." Often the series 
of pictures evoked represent a connection with each 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 73 

other, but more frequently they do not, and the transi- 
tion to new pictures is abrupt and without traceable 
associative relations. They are not accompanied with 
the same visual characteristic as those of Mrs. Ver- 
rall. But they show the one interesting feature of 
these phenomena, namely, visions induced by a crys- 
tal. 

While writing this chapter it occurred to me that 
I might ask my housekeeper, a woman of some intel- 
ligence and who had earher in hfe had some inter- 
esting coincidental psychic experiences, to try the 
crystal. She did so at my request, and the following 
was the result. 

She first saw bright lights radiating from the cen- 
tre of the crystal, which was a round ball. From 
these there was a gradual change into figures. There 
seemed to be a plain in the far east, Hke a desert, 
and Egypt was suggested. In the centre of this 
plain was a large flat stone. At one side of this was 
an Arabian horse, with the head alone distinctly seen. 
At the left side of the horse stood an Arab servant. 
Back two or three feet to the right stood a woman 
dressed in white with a crown on her head. As she 
stood there she put her right hand out and pointed 
off to a distance. The servant turned his head and 
looked at her and seemed to answer her. At this 
point the seer was interrupted by my little boy, and 
the vision vanished and could not be reproduced. 
The experience, so far as known, is only a fancy 
picture. It does not represent any particular interest 
in the lady's mental activity, as she apparently has 
read very little of Oriental Kfe. 



74 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 
2. Coincidental Visions 

The phenomena of crystal vision, in so far as they 
represent resurrected memories or fancy construc- 
tions, give the psychologist no special trouble, at least 
regarding their contents. They do not contain or 
suggest anything supernormal, though they are ca- 
pricious in many instances and represent as often a 
peculiar exhibition of subconscious processes appar- 
ently parallel with the normally conscious stream of 
mental action. Aside from these peculiarities, how- 
ever, they offer nothing beyond the ordinary expla- 
nation, save their relation to latent mental activities 
playing on the contents and functions connected with 
normal sense perception and subliminal impressions. 

But when it comes to coincidental visions induced 
by the crystal, we have a class of phenomena more 
puzzling. By such visions I mean those which rep- 
resent, not a past experience, memory, or fanciful 
construction, but a scene or incident in the mind of 
some one else, near or at a distance, or events and 
places not present. Such crystal visions do take 
place whatever the explanation we give of them. In 
mentioning them, however, I do not mean to imply 
that we must accept them ais supernormal until they 
have been adduced in sufficient quantity and quality 
to compel such a conclusion. I am defining their 
superficial character, which is that they at least re- 
produce facts which have not previously been in the 
normal experience of the individual having the crystal 
vision. We simply find that there is a coincidence, 
casual if one wishes to so explain them, or causal if 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 75 

the evidence suffices to indicate this, between what is 
seen in the crystal and what is occurring, or has oc- 
curred, elsewhere beyond the range of normal knowl- 
edge. I shall therefore merely indicate the facts and 
not thereby imply what explanation of them shall be 
assumed. There is no use to suppose at the outset 
that such facts as telepathy or clairvoyance are pos- 
sible and then quote the phenomena to prove them, 
as these terms are but names for phenomena unex- 
plained and possibly inexplicable. The proper course 
of procedure is the unvarnished statement of the facts 
and the classification of them may follow. 

The intricate nature of the mental processes in- 
volved in the crystal visions already described sug- 
gests almost any possibility, if only the evidence is 
found to support it. The very fact that a crystal 
should evoke phenomena that are not naturally sug- 
gested by the sensory stimulus of a polished surface, 
phenomena wholly unarticulated with the ordinary 
sense impressions, is one to encourage investigation, 
and if we find mysterious mental processes accom- 
panying the effect, we may have transgressed the 
boundaries of normal knowledge and it becomes our 
duty to ascertain whether the limits which we have 
customarily assigned to mental action are as narrow 
as supposed. We can determine such a question only 
by an examination of the facts. 

I have said that coincidental crystal visions are 
those which represent a mental event corresponding 
to some fact or event at a distance and not the effect 
of normal perception. It may be due to chance or 
any other ordinary explanation, but it represents 



76 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

facts not in the ordinary experience of the subject. 
We may find recrudescent memories associated with 
their occurrence, or even products of the fancy and 
imagination, but in such as I shall quote we shall 
also find a striking coincidence in their contents with 
some external fact or event at a distance, or in an- 
other mind, and not normally perceivable. 

The first coincidental case which I wish to quote 
is of that type which represents a mosaic of memory 
images fused with a fact that strongly suggests an 
outside agency in the production of the result, though 
it does not prove it. This is an instance in the ex- 
perience of Miss Goodrich-Freer. It is chiefly inter- 
esting because it is of that borderland type which 
can claim subjective causes and chance coincidence as 
its explanation as a fair alternative to the super- 
normal. 

" On the evening of Saturday, July 28, 1888, the 
crystal presented me with a picture of a mediaeval 
saint, carrying a rabbit. This I recognized as rep- 
resenting a stained glass window at a church in the 
neighborhood, which I visit perhaps two or three 
times in a year, always sitting within view of this 
window. As I had not been there for many months, 
nor consciously pictured the spot since my last visit, 
I was puzzled to account for the vision. Early the 
next morning, on waking, I observed on my table 
a letter, which had probably lain there unnoticed the 
previous evening, and which I found contained a re- 
quest that I would, if possible, attend the early serv- 
ice at the church in question that morning." 

It would require many and much better coinci- 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 77 

dences to satisfy the demand for proof of the super- 
normal, and I think it was better instances that 
induced the lady who reports this one to treat it as 
possibly more than a chance coincidence. The next 
is much like it, but is more striking, because the main 
incident does not represent so familiar a past. 

" On Monday evening, February 11th, I took up 
the crystal, with the deliberate intention of seeing 
in it a figure which happened to occupy my thoughts 
at the moment, but I found the field preoccupied by 
a small bunch of daffodils, — a prim little posy, not 
larger than might be formed by two or three fine 
heads. This presented itself in various positions, in 
spite of my hurry to be rid of it, for I rashly con- 
cluded my vision to be a consequence of my having 
the day before seen, on a friend's dinner-table, the 
first daffodils of the season. The resemblance was 
not complete, for those I had seen were loosely ar- 
ranged and intermixed with ferns and ivy, whereas 
my crystal vision had no foliage, and was a compact 
little bunch. It was not till Thursday, the 14th, that 
I received, as a wholly unexpected valentine, a paint- 
ing, on a blue satin ground, of a bunch of daffodils, 
corresponding exactly with my crystal picture, and 
learnt that the artist had spent some hours on Mon- 
day, previous to my vision, in making studies of the 
flowers in various positions." 

There is enough of the coincidence with the daffo- 
dils seen the day before the crystal vision to enable 
the sceptic to plead chance, unless Miss Goodrich- 
Freer has mistaken the features which identify the 
vision with the features of the painting. In any case, 



78 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

it IS interesting to note the circumstances whichi 
changed her own interpretation of the incident. The 
next is equally striking and perhaps without the same 
sceptical implications. 

" On Saturday, March 9th, I had written a some- 
what impatient note to a friend, accusing her of hav- 
ing, on her return from a two months' absence on the 
Continent, spent ten days in London without paying 
me a visit. I was not, therefore, surprised when on 
Sunday evening she appeared before me in the crys- 
tal, but could not understand why she should hold 
up, with an air of deprecation, what appeared to be 
a music portfoHo. On Monday I received an answer, 
written the previous day, pleading guilty to my 
charge, but urging, in excuse, that she was attending 
the Royal Academy of Music, and was engaged there 
during the greater part of every day. This intelli- 
gence was to the last degree unexpected, for my 
friend is a married woman, who has never studied 
music in any but amateur style, and who, according 
to the standard of most ladies of fashion, had ' fin- 
ished her education ' some years ago. I have since 
ascertained that she, in fact, carries a portfolio cor- 
responding with the sketch I made of that seen in the 
vision." 

Miss Goodrich-Freer records two involving coinci- 
dences with a fire apparently predicted by the crystal, 
though we do not know what coincidence with an- 
other's thought might be involved. There is then an 
instance, too long to quote, of seeing in the crystal 
two letters with details of their appearance before she 
actually saw them. We often hear of a sort of clair- 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 79 

vojant perception of letters, and even their contents, 
as occurring before their arrival by post. They are 
not always mentioned or recorded in a manner to make 
the stories evidential. Miss Goodrich-Freer, however, 
says that 14 per cent, of her crystal visions are of 
this type. 

I shall quote two more very interesting experi- 
ments, especially in that they contain incidents in the 
memory of other minds than that of Miss Goodrich- 
Freer, and ascertained after the occurrence of the 
events represented in the crystal vision. 

" On October 12, 1891," says the same writer, " I 
was discussing the question of crystal pictures with 
a gentleman to whom I had been but that day intro- 
duced, and of whose friends or surroundings I knew 
nothing whatever, and who was so deeply interested 
in the subject that I promised to look into the crystal 
with the definite hope of seeing something which he 
might find personally interesting. I was rewarded by 
three pictures, of which one was as follows: 

" A room containing a high glass screen, round 
the end of which came, after a few moments, a lady, 
short, plump, dressed in blue serge dress, with a short 
jacket, in the pockets of which she rested her finger- 
tips ; elbows stuck out, hair dark, dressed in a low, 
loose knot, fine dark eyes, and a white sailor hat. As 
she walked across the picture, she turned and seemed 
to look at me with some curiosity. 

" We had occasion a few days later to visit Mr. 
R.^s office on business, when I described my pictures. 
No. 2, the picture above described, he recognized as 
representing his lady secretary, though some female 



80 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

clerks in the office denied that she wore a sailor hat. 
She was not in at the time, but he was able to show 
me the glass screen in the room in which she habitually 
sat. I made her acquaintance later, and found that 
I was, for special reasons, an object of some curiosity 
to her, and also that she had had a white sailor hat, 
which, only a day or two before my vision, had been 
blown into the Thames, leaving her to walk down the 
Embankment bareheaded. 

" My other two visions Mr. R. regarded as also 
reflected from his mind and thoughts at the time, but 
I had not the same degree of proof as in the case 
which I have described. 

" On August 10th of this year (1892) D. went 
with her family to spend the autumn in a country- 
house which they had taken furnished, and which 
neither of us had ever seen. I was also away from 
home, the distance between us being at least two hun- 
dred miles. 

" On the morning of the 12th I received a pencil 
note from her, evidently written with difficulty, say- 
ing that she had been fiercely attacked by a savage 
dog, from which she and our little terrier had de- 
fended themselves and each other as best they could, 
receiving a score or so of wounds between them before 
they could summon any one to their assistance. She 
gave me no details, assuming that, as often happens 
between us, I should have received intimation of her 
danger before the news could reach me by ordinary 
methods. 

" D. was extremely disappointed on hearing that 
I had known nothing. I had not consulted the crystal 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 81 

on the day of the accident, and had received no inti- 
mation. Begging her to tell me nothing further as 
to the scene of her adventure, I sought for it in the 
crystal on Sunday, 14th, and noted the following 
details. The attacking dog was a black retriever, and 
our terrier held him by the throat while D. beat him 
in the rear. I saw also the details of D.'s dress. But 
all this I knew or could guess. What I could not 
know was that the terrier's collar lay upon the 
ground, that the struggle took place upon a lawn, 
beyond which lay earth — a garden bed probably — 
overshadowed by an aucuba-bush. 

" On September 9th I had an opportunity of re- 
peating all this to Mr. Myers, and on the 10th I 
joined D, at her country-house. The rest of the story 
I give in her own words: 

" ' As we were somewhat disappointed that no inti- 
mation of the accident which had occurred to me had 
reached Miss X. (Goodrich-Freer), she determined to 
try to call up a mental picture of the scene where it 
had occurred, and if possible to verify it when visit- 
ing us later on. 

" ' On the night of her arrival at C , we were 

able to go over the whole of the grounds alone, and 
it was therefore not until the following morning that 
we went together for the special purpose of fixing 
on the exact spot. Miss X. was in front, as I feared 
some unconscious sign of recognition on my part 
might spoil the effect of her choice. The garden is 
a very large one, and we wandered for some time with- 
out fixing on a spot, the sole clue given by Miss X. 
being that she " could not get the right place, it 



82 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

wanted a light bush." I pointed out several, silver 
maples, etc., in various directions, but none would do, 
and she finally walked down to the place where the 
accident had occurred, close to a large aucuba (the 
onli/ one, I believe, in the shrubbery), and said, " This 
must be it; it has the path and the grass and the 
bush, as it should be, but I had expected it to be much 
further from the house." ' " 

Mrs. Verrall's experiments do not give any clear 
cases of coincidence suggesting the supernormal as 
an explanation. She reports two or three that might 
be interpreted as borderland instances of it, if the 
supernormal were first proved by much better evi- 
dence, but that is all. They are cases of seeing in 
the crystal objects which afterward turned out to be 
nearly identical with those seen in the crystal. But 
the Countess of Radnor reports of Miss A., who was 
also quoted above, some incidents quite as interesting 
as those of Miss Goodrich-Freer. I quote Miss A.'s 
own account. 

" Some time ago I was looking in my crystal and 
saw Lady Radnor sitting in a room I had never seen, 
in a big red chair, and a lady in a black dress and 
white cap whom I had never seen came in and put 
her hand upon Lady R.'s shoulder. It was about 
7.30 I think. I immediately, that same evening, wrote 
to Lady R. to ask her to write down what she was 
doing at 7.30, as I had seen her in the crystal. 
Shortly afterward I saw Lady R., and she said she 
had done as I asked her, and told me to tell her what 
I saw. It was quite right; she had been sitting in 
a red armchair, and Lady Jane E., dressed as I de- 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 83 

scribed her, had come in and put her hand on her 
shoulder. Afterward, when I met Lady Jane E., I 
recognized her, without knowing who she was, as the 
lady I had seen. Also when I went to the house I 
recognized the chair." Lord and Lady Radnor con- 
firm the incidents. 

Another represents as this one a contemporary 
scene. " In one case I saw and described Mr. B. (a 
well-known writer), whom I knew slightly, as hunting 
for a paper in the drawers of a writing-table. He 
used a particular pen, which I described, and with 
his hands ruffled his hair till it stood up in a kind of 
halo. A lady came in and pointed to his hair and 
laughed. Lord Radnor inquired of Mr. B., and all 
this was found to be correct. He was writing with 
a pen unusual to him (silver instead of quill, or vice 
versa), and was looking for a paper which he wanted 
to send by post. His sister (I did not know she lived 
with him, and had never seen her) entered the room 
and pointed laughing to his hair, just as I had seen." 

Sir Joseph Barnby, the well-known musician, re- 
ports an incident in his experience with Miss A. that 
is as striking as any. It occurred in 1892. 

" I was invited by Lord and Lady Radnor to the 
wedding of their daughter. Lady Wilma Bouverie, 
which took place August 15, 1889. 

" I was met at Salisbury by Lord and Lady Rad- 
nor and driven to Longford Castle. In the course of 
the drive. Lady Radnor said to me : * We have a 
young lady staying with us in whom, I think, you will 
be much interested. She possesses the faculty of see- 
ing visions, and is otherwise closely connected with the 



84 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

spiritual world. Only last night she was looking in 
her crystal and described a room which she saw 
therein as a kind of London dining-room.' [The 
room described was not in London but at L., and 
Miss A. particularly remarked that the floor was in 
large squares of black and white marble — as it is 
in the big hall at L., where the family prayers are 
said. — H. M. Radnor.] ' With a little laugh, she 
added, " And the family are evidently at prayers, the 
sers'^ants are kneeling at the chairs round the room, 
and the prayers are being read by a tall gentleman 
with a very handsome, long grey beard." With an- 
other little laugh, she continued: " A lady just behind 
him rises from her knees and speaks to him. He puts 
her aside with a wave of the hand, and continues his 
reading." The young lady here gave a careful de- 
scription of the lady who had risen from her knees.' 

'' Lady Radnor then said : ' From the description 
given, I cannot help thinking that the two principal 
personages described are Lord and Lady L., but I 
shall ask Lord L. this evening, as they are coming 
by a later train, and I should like you to be present 
when the answer is given.' 

" That same evening, after dinner, I was* talking 
to Lord L. when Lady Radnor came up to fiim and 
said : ' I want to ask you a question. I am afraid you 
will think it a very silly one, but in any case I hope 
you will not ask me why I have put the question.' To 
this Lord L. courteously assented. She then said: 
' Were you at home last night? ' He replied ' Yes.' 
She said : ' Were you having family prayers at such 
a time last evening.'* ' With a slight look of surprise 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 85 

he replied, ' Yes, we were.' She then said : ' During 
the course of the prayers did Lady L. rise from her 
knees and speak to you, and did you put her aside 
with a wave of the hand? ' Much astonished. Lord L. 
answered : ' Yes, that was so, but may I inquire why 
you have asked this question? ' To which Lady Rad- 
nor answered : ' You promised you wouldn't ask me 
that!'" 

There are a large number of extraordinary experi- 
ences reported of Miss A. which are not crystal vis- 
ions, and they are so remarkable that they are incred- 
ible on any theory except the spiritistic, and I refer 
to them merely as associated with the capacity for 
crystal visions and as entitled to consideration in the 
question of what is credible in the experiences which 
I have mentioned. The sceptic may choose to reject 
such as I have quoted, on the ground that the incredi- 
biHty of the more astonishing incidents raises a ques- 
tion about the others. They are all, however, so well 
supported by respectability that, even though we re- 
main agnostic, we cannot deny the force of the case 
in their favor. 

I shall refer to an incident in shell reading by Miss 
Goodrich-Freer that is quite analogous to those of 
crystal vision. In fact, we can simply suppose that 
the shell acts to produce aural as the crystal acts 
to produce visual hallucinations. I narrate the inci- 
dent because it bears upon the existence of the super- 
normal. 

On one occasion Miss Goodrich-Freer had been 
experimenting with a friend for telepathy. Some 
time after he had left, she picked up her shell and 



86 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

held it to her ear. The conversation which they had 
had at the experiments was repeated in an aural hal- 
lucination, and in the midst of it came the irrelevant 
words: " Are jou a vegetarian, then? " Miss Good- 
rich-Freer at once wrote to her friend, stating the 
facts, and asked him if he was responsible for this 
irrelevancy. He replied that about fifteen minutes 
after he had left her he met a friend who made some 
allusions to a vegetarian restaurant, and that he, 
Miss Goodrich-Freer's friend, had interrupted him 
with the question: " Are you a vegetarian, then? " 

It is natural to ask how we explain such coinci- 
dences. I think that they point to something more 
than chance, accepting the narratives at their face 
value, and they are data which the official committee 
of the Society for Psychical Research accepted as 
trustworthy. Probably the most natural classification 
of the phenomena would be that of telepathic, espe- 
cially as some of them represent coincidence with the 
present states of mind of the persons to whom the 
visions point. But I am not sure that we can resort 
hastily to telepathy. I should certainly say that they 
would not be sufficient to prove it, though we might 
accept that classification after the fact of telepathy 
had been estabhshed. But even then we should have 
to incorporate with it that conception of telepathy 
which extends it to the selection of latent memories in 
the subject from whom the telepathic influence is sup- 
posed to come. I am not yet sure that we are entitled 
to such an hypothesis. 

The experiments which seem to guarantee telepathy 
or thought transference show no special tendency to 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 8T 

select any but the present states of consciousness, the 
memories of the agent playing no perceptible part in 
the result. It is apparent, however, that many of 
the incidents selected as coincidental visions repre- 
sent the present active mental state of another than 
the crystal seer's mind, but any attempt to limit the 
coincidence to this would have to confront the fact of 
coincidence in latent or subconscious experiences, 
making it appear that any telepathy assumed must 
be conceded the power to tap the subliminal of the 
agent; unless we suppose that all present mental 
states of living persons, or at least our friends, are 
telepathically impressed upon our minds at the time 
of their occurrence, and that the crystal simply has 
the power to reproduce them as our own latent im- 
pressions, as many of the incidents shown in the first 
section, those of resurrected memories, indicate that 
subliminal impressions can be recalled by the crystal 
when normal experiences are not. Indeed Miss Good- 
rich-Freer remarks that she has found that what she 
has not consciousl}^ noticed in the past is more likely 
to be recalled by the crystal than what she has con- 
sciously observed. 

Are we then to suppose that coincidences of this 
kind with the past experiences of others involve the 
reproduction of them in our own consciousness as past 
telepathic perceptions? The facts certainly do not 
suggest any other theory clearly, except a telepathic 
access to the memory of the subject that knew them. 
Either supposition is so incredible that I prefer to 
say that I cannot explain the facts at all. They cer- 
tainly point to some extraordinary explanation, as 



88 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

they seem to represent coincidences not due to chance. 
But it is not clear that telepathy can explain them. 
Even in cases where experimental proof is produced, 
involving present mental states of the subject trans- 
mitting the thought, telepathy is but a name for facts 
requiring a cause, and is not a cause itself, and much 
less does it apply to facts like these. We should sim- 
ply have to extend the meaning of the term beyond 
that which the most evidential facts indicate, and that 
is merely to make it a conception for the coincidence 
between what the percipient obtains and what some 
one else knows or knew. This is not an explanation 
of any kind, nor even a clear implication that it is 
any definite process between the minds concerned. It 
is only an appropriation of a term which has definite 
associations with causal agency when it describes 
transmission of present mental states for a coinci- 
dence that does not imply any analogy with known 
causes whatever. 

There is one important point, however, which must 
be considered in any explanation that is offered. 
Many of the crystal visions of both Mrs. Verrall and 
Miss Goodrich-Freer represented a tendency of the 
crystal to suggest impressions that had been sub- 
liminal and not consciously recognized. I remarked 
that we should have to suppose something supernor- 
mal or miraculous if we did not assume that the crys- 
tal had simply recalled subliminal impressions, and 
if we are to suppose that this is its tendency, we may 
find a suggestion for intermental communications 
between the subconscious minds of living people that 
may have no limits to its range. The difficulty with 



CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 89 

any such supposition must be the selective nature of 
the process and the Hmitation of it to a certain con- 
tent. Why the vision selected should be so relevant to 
a definite person or thing and not represent a perfect 
chaos of representations is a circumstance that must 
make us pause in the temptation to admit ad libitwm 
subliminal communication between different minds, 
especially when it concerns unconscious impressions by 
both of them. I shall not be in any haste to adopt 
such a theory, though I do not deny its possibility. 

The one important fact, however, to carry away 
with these crystal visions is the existence of subcon- 
scious mental states which suggest that the normal 
consciousness does not exhaust the powers and func- 
tions of the mind or organism. Mr. Myers made 
that use of it which endeavored to establish the view 
that mental action was not a function of the brain. 
Whether he was right in this interpretation of sub- 
liminal mental functions cannot be discussed here, but 
the view is certainly worthy of consideration, while 
the phenomena which this chapter illustrates undoubt- 
edly show much that had not been dreamt of in the 
philosophy of the previous century. Leibnitz sug- 
gested the unconscious, and Sir William Hamilton 
definitely defended " unconscious mental modifica- 
tions." But it remained for a later period to prove 
it experimentally. Crystal vision is one of those ex- 
periments, and is interesting because the cause which 
incites the visions does not suggest the result. 

I shall not indulge in any mystic speculations re- 
garding the nature and meaning of crystal vision. 
Imagination might create all sorts of theories, but 



90 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

this is no age in which to let our fancies run riot in 
mysterious phenomena simply because we cannot find 
an easy explanation. I shall not dispute the remark- 
able interest which the facts have, nor shall I deny the 
possibility that they may have a significance not ap- 
parent on the surface of them. But I shall not enter- 
tain any such significance until the phenomena are 
better understood and until some approximation to an 
explanation of them has been obtained. The place 
to begin with the understanding of them is in those 
which represent the reproduction of latent memories. 
In these we obtain some indication of the normal 
processes involved in the acquisition of the facts re- 
called, even though those processes be subliminal and 
hyperaesthesic. We are familiar with the fact of 
acute sensibility and we have only to add to this the 
two facts of remembering and recalling subconscious 
impressions to obtain a suggestion that more enters 
our minds than we have been accustomed to recog- 
nize. 

The limits of knowledge are not exactly where 
Locke placed them, namely, normal sensation and 
perception. Apparently the mind is sensitive to much 
else, or we cannot define the limits of " sense percep- 
tion." However this may be, crystal visions and 
similar phenomena bring us to the forced admission 
that we have not yet made the mysteries of mind as 
clear as preceding generations supposed. We have 
to push the fact of acute sensibility and acute mem- 
ory into service, not merely for defining the limits 
of the supernormal, but also for rendering possible 
^hat cannot be explained by the ordinary processes 



.CRYSTAL GAZING: EXPERIMENTS 91 

of sense perception. The incidents in crystal vis- 
ion apparently showing supernormal acquisition of 
knowledge so far transcend all that we ordinarily 
know of acute sensibiKty that we can only use this 
last fact as evidence of the possibility of much more 
besides, and prosecute our inquiries until we find a 
pathway into the deeper mysteries of the mind. 



CHAPTER V 



TELEPATHY 



Physical science with its new theories of ions, 
electrons, X-rays, N-rays, the evolution of the atoms, 
and the mysteries of ether can hardly shock the tra- 
ditional doctrines of men more than telepathy shocks 
the psychologist. Whole generations, indeed many 
centuries, have rested complacently in the belief that 
sensation was the only source of external knowledge, 
and that some physical impression of the normal and 
familiar type was absolutely necessary to obtain any 
communication with an outside world, whether mate- 
rial or mental. Within a generation, however, we 
have been confronted with the assertion that there 
are processes, under suitable conditions, for the im- 
mediate transmission of consciousness from one mind 
to another without the use of normal physical impres- 
sions as they are familiarly known. Many of the 
crystal visions mentioned in the last chapter sug- 
gested such phenomena, though they may not have 
sufficed to prove it, and it now becomes necessary to 
define the conception a little more clearly and to 
illustrate its claims, although we may have to grant 
some elasticity of meaning to the term in order to 
cover the many types of fact to be quoted. 

The exact definition of telepathy must be deter- 
mined by the facts which it is supposed to explain or 
classify. Those which first suggested it as a term 

92 



TELEPATHY 93 

of description and also of causal connection between 
two minds were mainly, if not wholly, present mental 
states. That is, the mental state of one person iden- 
tical with that of another under circumstances which 
apparently precluded ordinary explanation for the 
coincidence. Of course, many of the facts, real or 
alleged, had a history in connection with the claims 
of spiritualism, but the first critical examination 
of the phenomena, whether genuine or ungenuine, 
showed a class of incidents that could not be invoked 
in favor of spirits, no matter how genuine they might 
prove to be. The one fact necessary to prove the 
existence of discarnate spirits is a large class of 
supernormal phenomena in proof of personal iden- 
tity and a psychological process illustrating that 
identity more distinctly than sporadic incidents of 
a supernormal type. The consequence of this con- 
ception of what the spiritualist had to do was that 
all phenomena not tending to prove this identity had 
to be placed aside and reserved for further examina- 
tion, and explanation, if need be, without a resort 
to the survival of human consciousness. With this 
view of the case a large group of phenomena were 
noticed which indicated remarkable coincidences be- 
tween the thoughts of living persons, thought appar- 
ently transmitted by some unusual process from one 
mind to another. The nature of the situation sug- 
gested telepathy as the term to describe the facts and 
to imply a causal connection not familiar to normal 
experience. 

From the very start the term obtained a very com- 
prehensive meaning. It denoted all coincidental phe- 



/ 



94 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

nomena between two minds that were not evidential 
of spirit agency, and so did not discriminate betAveen 
what the two minds were tliinking about at the time 
and what was in their memories. This broad concep- 
tion is embarrassing to the man who wants an expla- 
nation of the phenomena, though it rightly excludes 
a resort to anything but a relation between living 
minds, in so far as the contents of the coincidences 
are concerned. But definite experiments to test the 
claims of a causal connection of a supernormal char- 
acter between two minds show a practical Hmitation 
of the significant coincidences to the present active 
mental states of agent and percipient, that is, the 
one transmitting and the one receiving the thought. 
This is the narrower conception of supernormal com- 
munication between different minds, and relates it to 
what we know of mechanical agencies. These produce 
their effect at the time that they are in force. They 
do not delay their effects. There is always some 
present result from their action and the connection 
between cause and effect is immediate. In the experi- 
ments to test the claims of telepathy this coincidence 
was practically universal. The consequence was that 
the only scientific conception that could be given the 
term was that it denotes a supernormally causal coin- 
cidence between the present mental states of two dif- 
ferent persons, that is, the communication of thoughts, 
independently of the recognized and familiar proc- 
esses of sense perception. The transmission of mem- 
ories was not apparent in these experiments, and 
perhaps the majority of spontaneous coincidences 
suggesting the supernormal also represented present 



TELEPATHY 95 

mental states. Hence the properly scientific concep- 
tion of the term associated it most closely with this 
limitation of its meaning. 

But there are large numbers of coincidental phe- 
nomena that are neither evidence of discamate agency 
nor representative of present mental states between 
the living, and yet they appear to suggest some sort 
of causal connection. They differ from the evidence 
adduced for telepathy, in its narrower import, only 
in the fact that the coincidence is between what the 
seer or percipient experiences and some latent memory 
of the person from whom the incidents are apparently 
derived. Owing to this fact and the desire to limit 
the claims of spiritualism the term telepathy has been 
made to do duty for all real or alleged mental coin- 
cidences which were not proof of the personal identity 
of deceased persons. It is that wider meaning that we 
shall have to tolerate here until the process is better 
understood. In narrating historical and spontaneous 
incidents, however, I shall not assume that telepathy 
of any kind is a fact. I do not mean to treat this 
chapter as a proof of it. I emphasize this fact. I 
use the term only as a means of grouping a number 
of traditional and historical incidents claiming to have 
some sort of value as mental phenomena demanding 
an explanation more than the ordinary. 

With this understanding that the term shall have 
none but the most general significance, and that it 
shall not assume any supernormal facts to have been 
proved, I shall quote some incidents from legend and 
history that will show the phenomena which suggested 
supernormal experience in recent years to have been 



96 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

of long standing. They were noted in antiquity, but 
that period was so famihar with the behef in the 
" supernatural " that it was not struck with the anom- 
alous character of the phenomena, and so took no 
pains to record them as fully as might otherwise have 
been the case. It took a sceptical age, convinced of 
materialism, to pause or to doubt in the presence of 
coincidental phenomena of this kind. We can, there- 
fore, recur to ancient stories only to suggest that the 
phenomena are not new. 

1. Historical Incidents 

The first incident which I wish to note and which 
looks like a case of telepathy is a beautiful story 
about Castor and Pollux at the battle of Lake Regil- 
lus. Castor and Pollux were mythological heroes. 
Legend has it that these two youths of superhuman 
size and beauty were seen fighting side by side in this 
battle, and that immediately after they were seen 
watering their foaming steeds in the Roman Forum 
and the fountain of Iturna, where they announced the 
great victory. 

" Since the first gleam of daylight, 
Sempronius had not ceased 
To listen for the rushing 
Of horse-hoofs from the east. 
The mist of eve was rising, 
The sun was hastening down, 
When he was aware of a princely pair 
Fast pricking toward the town. 
So like they were, man never 
Saw twins so like before ; 



TELEPATHY 97 

Red with gore their armor was, 
Their steeds were red with gore. 

« < Hail to the great Asylum ! 
Hail to the hill-tops seven ! 
Hail to the fire that burns for aye, 
And the shield that fell from heaven ! 
This day, by Lake Regillus, 
Under the Porcian height, 
Was fought a glorious fight. 
To-morrow your dictator 
Shall bring in triumph home 
The spoils of thirty cities 
To deck the shrines of Rome ! ' 

« Then burst from that great concourse 
A shout that shook the towers, 
And some ran north, and some ran south, 
Crying, ' The day is ours ! ' 
But on rode these strange horsemen, 
With slow and lordly pace ; 
And none who saw their bearing 
Durst ask their name or race. 
On rode they to the Forum, 
While laurel-boughs and flowers, 
From housetops and windows. 
Fell on their crests in showers. 
When they drew nigh to Vesta, 
They vaulted down amain, 
And washed their horses in the well 
That springs by Vesta's fane. 
And straight again they mounted, 
And rode to Vesta's door ; 
Then, like a blast, away they passed, 
And no man saw them more." 



98 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

The plain, unvarnished story of Plutarch and tra- 
dition has here been embellished by Macaulay's art, 
and one does not like to disturb its effect. But the 
legend had done service before, and is similar in all 
its details to a story told of the same immortal youths 
in the famous battle at the river Sagras between the 
Crotoniates and the Locrians a century before that 
of Lake Regillus. Plutarch in his list of such in- 
stances barely alludes to the former, and with a con- 
sciousness of its legendary character. But he goes 
on to narrate cases that were of a more authentic 
nature to him, after referring to the fact that the 
defeat of the Persians at Mycale in 479 b. c. was sim- 
ilarly known on the same day at Plataea. With the 
story of Castor and Pollux, he seems to class one 
about the victory of Paulus ^milius at Pydna in 
586 B. c. over the Macedonians, and the knowledge 
of it in Rome. " On the fourth day after Perseus 
was beaten at Pydna," he says, " as the people were 
at the equestrian games in Rome, a report was sud- 
denly spread in the first streets of the theatre that 
^milius had gained a great battle over Perseus, and 
overturned the kingdom of Macedon. The news was 
made public in a moment, the multitude clapped their 
hands and set up great acclamations, and it passed 
current that day in the city. Afterward, when it 
appeared that it had no good foundation, the story 
dropped for the present; but when a few (16) days 
afterward it was confirmed beyond dispute, they could 
not but wonder at the report which was its harbinger, 
and the fiction which turned truth." 

Plutarch speaks of the incident as fabulous, and 



TELEPATHY 99 

shows his good judgment, but he thinks his next case 
is less incredible. 

" All these stories," he continues, " are confirmed 
by that which happened in our times. For when 
Lucius Antonius rebelled against Domitian, Rome 
was much alarmed, and expected a bloody war in 
Germany, but on a sudden and of their own proper 
motion, the people raised a report, and spread it over 
the city, that Antonius was vanquished and slain, and 
that his army was cut in pieces, and not one man 
escaped. Such a run had the news and such was the 
credit given to it, that many of the magistrates 
offered sacrifice on the occasion. But when the author 
of it was sought after, they were referred from one 
to another, all their inquiries were eluded, and at last 
the news was lost in the immense crowd, as in a vast 
ocean. Thus the report, appearing to have no solid 
foundation, immediately vanished. But as Domitian 
was marching his forces to chastise the rebels, mes- 
sengers and letters met him on the road, which 
brought him an account of the victory. Then they 
found it was won the same day the report was prop- 
agated, though the field of battle was more than 
twenty thousand furlongs (2,500 miles) from Rome. 
This is a fact which no one can be unacquainted with." 

The battle of Bannockburn has a story connected 
with it which has the coloring of telepathy. Robert 
White, in a history of the battle, takes the story from 
Hector Boece, of Aberdeen, who relates that on the 
same day of the battle a knight " in bright shining 
armor intimated to the inhabitants of Aberdeen how 
the Scottish army had gained a great victory over 



jfd 



100 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

their enemies of England. Soon afterward this war- 
rior, mounted on horseback, was seen to pass over the 
Pentland Firth. He was believed by the people to be 
a Saint Magnus, Prince of Orkney, and thereon King 
Robert endowed the Church of Orkney with five 
pounds annually out of the customs of Aberdeen to 
purchase bread and wine and wax for the abbey." 
One cannot but think that this is a Scottish version 
of the story of Castor and Pollux, and it certainly 
has that beautiful flavor of legend and imagination 
which so many stories of that and earlier ages have. 

Sir John Froissart tells a delightful story about 
the Count de Foix, in the fourteenth century, and 
which he obtained almost at first hand. The Count 
de Foix was the governor of Languedoc and Gascony, 
and Froissart owes his incident to a short residence 
with the count in his castle at Orthes. 

" A fact I am about to relate," says Froissart, 
" will astonish my readers, if they consider and pay 
attention to it. It was told me in the castle of the 
Count de Foix at Orthes, and by the same person who 
had informed me of the battle of Aljuberota, and the 
event of that day. I will therefore narrate it; for, 
ever since the squire related it to me, I have much 
thought on it, and shall do so as long as I live. It 
is a fact, as the squire assured me, that the Count de 
Foix was informed, the day of the battle of Aljube- 
rota, of everything that had there happened, the same 
as I have related it, which surprised me exceedingly 
how this could possibly have been. 

" The whole days of Sunday, Monday, and the fol- 
lowing Tuesday he was in his castle of Orthes, and 



TELEPATHY 101 

made such poor and melancholj meals that not one 
word could be drawn from him ; nor would he during 
that time quit his chambers, nor speak to knight or 
squire, however nearly they were related by blood, 
unless he had sent for him ; and it also happened that 
he even sent for some to whom he never opened his 
lips during these three days. On the Tuesday, in the 
evening, he called his brother Arnold Wilham, and 
said to him in a low voice — ' Our people have had a 
desperate battle, which has vexed me very much, for 
it has happened to them just as I had foretold it at 
their departure.' Arnold WilKam, who was a wise 
man and a prudent knight, well acquainted with the 
temper of his brother, was silent. The count, anx- 
ious to cheer up his courage, for he had too long 
nurtured in his breast this sad news, added : ' By 

, Sir Arnold, it is just as I have told you, and 

very soon we shall have news of it. Never has the 
country of Beam suffered so severely for these hun- 
dred years past, as it has now at this battle in Por- 
tugal.' Many knights and squires who were present 
and heard these words of the count were afraid to 
speak, but commented within themselves on them. 

" Within ten days the truth was known from those 
who had been in the battle, and they first told the 
count and all who wished to hear them everything 
relative to their disputes with the Castilians and the 
event of the battle at Aljuberota. ' Holy Mary,' 
said I to the squire, ' how was it possible for the 
count to know, or even guess at it, on the morrow 
after it happened ? ' ' By my faith,' replied he, ' he 
knew it well enough as it appeared afterward.' ^ Is 



10^ ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

he a wizard, then? ' said I, ' or has he messengers 
that ride on the winds, for he must have some secret 
art.' Upon this the squire began to laugh, and said, 
' In truth, he must have known it by necromancy. 
We in this country, indeed, are ignorant how he man- 
ages, but we have our suspicions.' " 

Sir John Froissart asked to be told what these sus- 
picions were, and upon the promise of secrecy was 
told that Raymond, Lord of Carosse, was believed 
to be served by a familiar spirit, which kept him 
informed of all that was going on in the world, and 
that the Count de Foix, being an intimate friend of 
Raymond, received his knowledge through that me- 
dium. 

A typical ghost story follows, with banging of 
doors, thumping of windows, clatter of dishes, and 
other demoniacal behavior, supposed to be the pecul-^ 
iar virtue of spirits. The Lord of Carosse found it 
was a ghost, and it promised to serve him on certain 
conditions which he concealed. The information 
which the Count de Foix received from this source 
through his friend Raymond led him to exclaim: 
" Lord of Carosse, nourish the love of your intelli- 
gencer: I wish I had such a messenger; he costs 
you nothing, and you are truly informed of every- 
thing in the world." But Froissart finishes the story 
in a way to imply that the Count de Foix did not 
always depend upon communication with Raymond 
for his mysterious premonitions. For after the Lord 
of Carosse died, the same power seemed to abide with 
the count, and suspicion remained to suppose that 
the count himself, by some necromantic art, simulated 



TELEPATHY 103 

the vision of omniscience. " In good truth," con- 
cluded the squire to Froissart, " that is the real opin- 
ion of several of the inhabitants of Beam ; for there 
is nothing done in this country or elsewhere but what 
he instantly knows, when he sets his heart on it, even 
when it is the least suspected. Thus it was respect- 
ing the intelligence he told us of our good knights 
and squires who had fallen in Portugal. The repu- 
tation and belief of his possessing this knowledge is 
of great service to him, for there would not be lost 
a gold or silver spoon, or any of less value, in this 
country, without his instantly knowing it." 

The earmarks of this story are obvious, and but 
for similar incidents to-day we should not even quote 
it to illustrate the habits of legend and mythology. 
History repeats itself, and the incredible things of 
the past always throw their shadows on the events 
of the present which are exposed to acceptance be- 
cause it is easier to distrust history than the allega- 
tions of our neighbors. But we have learned that, 
though courtesy may require us to say nothing, we 
have to be as sceptical of the present as of the past, 
and such stories only invite an amiable distrust, until 
scientific experiment can verify the like. The case 
is a mediaeval instance of mediumship and perhaps 
should be considered under that head instead of telep- 
athy. But it belongs to the general category of the 
phenomena which once had a single classification and 
out of which the distinction of telepathic phenomena 
came. 

We come to Saint Simon, three hundred and fifty 
years later, and to his personal narrative of the man- 



104 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ner in which he himself heard the news of the battle 
of Turin, in which Prince Eugene defeated Marshal 
Massin and the Duke of Orleans. Saint Simon was 
an intimate personal and political friend of the duke, 
and says, as quoted by the Nation: 

" I had gone to pass a month at La Ferte (his 
estate) and continued to receive there news from Italy 
which M. le Due d'Orleans sent me carefully and 
in letters from his own hand, when he did not choose 
what he had communicated to me should pass through 
others. I was therefore fully instructed concerning 
his misfortunes which were to be anticipated, and 
very uneasy, when a gentleman coming from the 
house of his brother at Rouen, very near my house, 
presented himself to us — Madame de Saint Simon 
and myself — as we were walking in the park with 
some friends, and told us of the disaster of Turin, 
with exact details about M. le Due d'Orleans, the 
Marechal de Massin and all else, just as the king, 
not till three days later, learned by the couriers who 
brought the news, and I four days later by my let- 
ters from the court and from Paris ; without our ever 
being able to understand how it was possible that 
this sad news could have been brought with such 
extreme, not to say incredible, swiftness, without this 
gentleman being willing to say anything about it, 
except in the way of insisting strongly of the intel- 
ligence, and without our having seen him again, for 
he died very soon after." 

Saint Simon had a better reputation than Mun- 
chausen, but we have to lament that his informant 
died so soon after delivery of the news. Aside from 



TELEPATHY 105 

the weakness of the story for the methods of this 
age, its humorous end robs it of half its seriousness, 
and we can only give it a curious antiquarian inter- 
est a little more enticing than legend or mythology. 
But it is an instance of the many stories which still 
obtain currency in our own times and challenge in- 
vestigation, partly because they are better accredited 
and partly because our lives have to be protected 
against illusion. 

It was, of course, the carelessness of human belief 
and observation that brought ancient stories into dis- 
credit ; and the more that inquiry tried to find some- 
thing substantial even in modern narratives the more 
difficult it was to believe anything that we cannot see, 
or feel, or hear ourselves. The sterner demands of 
science dissolved almost everything but the results of 
multiplied experiment into legend, and even pushed 
its probe into the normal experiences of sense. But 
with all its critical spirit and in spite of the legiti- 
macy of its sceptical method, an organized effort to 
test the accuracy and credibility of stories somewhat 
like those which I have quoted from a remoter past 
has resulted in a collection of them that demands 
serious attention when their authors can be cross- 
examined, and this regardless of the significance or 
non-significance that they may have. 

2. SpontaneoTis Coincidences 

In selecting incidents illustrating spontaneous co- 
incidence I shall not pay any respect to the dignities 
of the phenomena, but select them with reference to 



106 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the reliability of their occurrence, in so far as that 
was determinable. Many people want to see that 
type of fact which seems to represent some important 
information, though they are not always clear as to 
what really has to be regarded as important. The 
temptation is to think anything important if only 
it is related to some critical situation in life. But 
when it comes to the settlement of a scientific question 
important relations to crises in life will not have as 
much value as the most trivial and unlikely incidents. 
We are dealing much more with the problem of evi- 
dence or proof than we are with that of utility or 
importance to the individual. I am therefore con- 
cerned with the question whether the stories told have 
that character which requires us to consider them as 
more than chance coincidences. When this is decided 
we may begin to ask for their further meaning. I 
can select only a few cases which will be illustrative 
of the kind which are calculated to appear suggestive. 
The quantity of them necessary to afford proof can- 
not be supplied in a work of this kind. We must be 
satisfied here with a few examples that illustrate a 
vast mass of similar phenomena on record, and which 
still requires additions to satisfy scientific demands. 

The first instance represents the testimony of two 
people, father and daughter, and is published in the 
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. I 
shall abbreviate it. 

A lady was reading a book in a rather shaded light, 
when her father, who was lying down with his daugh- 
ter's hand in his, turned and said to her : '* Anna, 
you will injure your eyes reading in that dim light." 



TELEPATHY 107 

" And I do not particularly like this book," responded 
the daughter. She was reading an historical novel, 
whose name she had forgotten, but goes on to say: 
" I remember vividly that the passage I had just read 
purported to be one of the last scenes in the life of 
Marie Antoinette, and I remember distinctly that in 
that scene a tall man carried a coffin from a room in 
which Marie Antoinette and some attendant ladies 
were at the time standing. I remember that in the 
story the tall man stood prominent in the foreground, 
and that my mind was strained under the part he 
took in that scene almost to the verge of repugnance." 
This being substantially what was told the father, 
he replied that he had just seen what his daughter 
had described. 

Another recorded in the same publication has four 
witnesses to its truthfulness and accuracy. These 
witnesses are the man who had the vision, his mother, 
his wife, and the lady to whom the seer was talking 
at the time that his vision occurred, the wife not 
being present on the occasion, but able to confirm the 
story from the letter written to her by her husband. 

" I was sitting one evening, about 8.30 p. m., in a 
large dining-room. At the table, facing me, with 
their backs to the door, were seated my mother, sister, 
and a friend, Mrs. W. Suddenly I seemed to see 
my wife bustling in through the door of the back 
dining-room, which was in view from my position. 
She was in mau^ve dress. I got up to meet her, 
though much astonished, as I believed her to be in 
Tenby. As I rose, my mother said, ' Who is that? ' 
not (I think) seeing any one herself, but seeing that 



108 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

I did. I exclaimed, ' Why, it's Carry,' and advanced 
to meet her. As I advanced the figure disappeared. 
On inquiry, I found that my wife was spending the 
evening at a friend's house, in a mauve dress, which 
I had most certainly never seen. I had never seen 
her dressed in that color. My wife recollected that 
at that time she was talking with some friends about 
me, much regretting my absence, as there was going 
to be dancing, and I had promised to play for them. 
I had been unexpectedly detained in London." 

This statement is signed by a Captain Beaumont, 
and its occurrence is vouched for by the lady at the 
table, who adds that, when he found it was a phan- 
tasm. Captain Beaumont remarked that his wife often 
appeared to people in this way ; and his wife confirms 
the statement that he had never before seen her in 
a mauve dress. 

The following incident is by Sir John Drummond 
Hay, who was for many years the English Minister 
or Ambassador in Morocco and resided in Tangier. 
The narrative is signed by three members of the fam- 
ily besides himself. 

" In the year 1879 my son Robert Drummond Hay 
resided in Mogodor with his family, where he was at 
that time consul. It was in the month of February. 
I had lately received good accounts of my son and 
his family ; I was also in perfect health. About 
1 A. M. (I forget the exact day in February), while 
sleeping soundly [at Tangier], I was woke by hear- 
ing distinctly the voice of my daughter-in-law, who 
was with her husband at Mogodor, saying in a clear 
but distressed tone of voice, ' Oh, I wish papa only 



TELEPATHY 109 

knew that Robert was ill.' There was a night lamp 
in the room. I sat up and listened, looking around 
the room, but there was no one except mj wife, sleep- 
ing quietly in bed. I hstened for some seconds, ex- 
pecting to hear footsteps outside, but complete still- 
ness prevailed, so I lay down again, thanking God 
that the voice which woke me was an hallucination. 
I had hardly closed my eyes when I heard the same 
voice and words, upon which I woke Lady Drummond 
Hay and told her what had occurred, and I got up 
and went into my study, adjoining the bedroom, and 
noted it in my diary. Next morning I related what 
had happened to my daughter, saying that, though 
I did not believe in dreams, I felt anxious for tidings 
from Mogodor. That part, as you will see, is about 
three hundred miles south of Tangier. A few days 
after the incident a letter arrived from my daughter- 
in-law, Mrs. R. Drummond Hay, telling us that my 
son was seriously ill with typhoid fever and mention- 
ing the night during which he had been delirious. 
Much struck by the coincidence that it was the same 
night I had heard her voice, I wrote to tell her what 
had happened. She replied, the following post, that 
in her distress at seeing her husband so dangerously 
ill, and from being alone in a distant land, she had 
made use of the precise words which had startled me 
from sleep, and had repeated them. As it may be 
of interest to you to receive a corroboration of what 
I have related, from the persons I have mentioned, 
who happen to be with me at this date, they also sign, 
to affirm the accuracy of all I have related." 

The daughter-in-law also tells another interesting 



110 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

and similarly coincidental experience of her own. It 
is too long to quote. The one quoted is of course a co- 
incidental dream and might belong to another chapter, 
but it has certain features that commend its use here. 

I shall quote some instances from the Phantasms of 
the Living, two volumes published by officers of the 
Society for Psychical Research. I shall observe as 
far as possible the matter of evidential suggestiveness 
in the selection of them, and dealing only with spon- 
taneous phenomena, though there are some quotable 
that are a combination of this and experimental coin- 
cidences. The first instance is attested by three re- 
spectable persons and occurred in England. 

A Mr. Drake called on a Mr. Wilson, whose daugh- 
ter had gone to India on a slow sailing vessel, and 
remarked that this daughter had arrived in India 
safely. Mr. Wilson replied that this was absurd, 
as the vessel was not due yet for a fortnight, and 
asked Mr. Drake how he knew. Mr. Drake replied 
that he had seen it. The preposterousness of the 
statement only led to Mr. Drake's challenge that he 
put the incident down on paper, which was done. In 
due time it was ascertained from the daughter and 
others that the vessel had arrived nearly a fortnight 
earlier than was expected. 

Another has the testimony of three persons to sup- 
port it, and involves the discovery of a mishap to 
a mother. 

" On one occasion I was walking," says the subject 
of the experience, " in a country lane at A., the place 
where my parents resided. I was reading geometry 
as I walked along, a subject little likely to produce 



TELEPATHY 111 

fancies or morbid phenomena of any kind, when, in 
a moment, I saw a bedroom known as the White Room 
in my home, and upon the floor lay my mother, to all 
appearance dead. The vision must have remained 
some minutes, during which my real surroundings ap- 
peared to pale and die out; but as the vision faded, 
actual surroundings came back, at first dimly, and 
then clearly. 

" I could not doubt that what I had seen was real, 
so, instead of going home, I went at once to the house 
of our medical man and found him at home. He 
at once set out with me for my home, on the way 
putting questions I could not answer, as my mother 
was to all appearances well when I left home. 

" I led the doctor straight to the White Room, 
where we found my mother actually lying as in my 
vision. This was true even to minute details. She 
had been seized suddenly by an attack at the heart, 
and would soon have breathed her last but for the 
doctor's timely advent. I shall get my father and 
mother to read this and sign it." It was so signed. 

Mr. Keulemans, who was a draughtsman on the 
Encyclopcedia Britannlca, gives an instance which is 
corroborated by his wife. He has had a number of 
similar experiences, some of them being coincident 
with the death of immediate relatives. But in this 
case he had the impression that his little boy had 
fallen out of bed and rolled upon the floor. He him- 
self was in London at the time, and his wife at the 
seaside. Inquiry of the wife showed that the child 
had fallen out of bed about the time that the impres- 
sion came to Mr. Keulemans. 



112 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Professor Barrett puts on record a most interesting 
spontaneous coincidence. It was a letter published 
in the English Spectator and signed by the author, 
I\Irs. Caroline Barber, with address. 

" I had one day been spending the morning in 
shopping, and returned by train just in time to sit 
down with my children to our early family dinner. 
My youngest child — a sensitive, quick-witted little 
maiden of two years and six weeks old — was one of 
the circle. Dinner had just commenced, when I sud- 
denly recollected an incident in my morning's experi- 
ence which I had intended to tell her, and I looked at 
the child with the full intention of saying, ' Mother 
saw a big, black dog in a shop, with curly hair,' catch- 
ing her eyes in mine, as I paused an instant before 
speaking. Just then something called off my atten- 
tion, and the sentence wa^ not uttered. What was my 
amazement, about two minutes afterward, to hear my 
little lady announce, ' Mother saw a big dog in a 
shop.' I gasped. ' Yes, I did ! ' I answ^ered ; ' but 
how did you know ? ' ' With funny hair,' she added, 
quite calmly, and ignoring my question. ' What 
color was it, Evelyn ? ' said one of her elder brothers. 
'Was it black.?' She said, 'Yes.' 

" Now it was simply impossible that she should have 
received any hint of the incident verbally. I had 
had no friend with me w^hen I had seen the dog. All 
the children had been at home, in our house in the 
country, four miles from town ; I had returned, as I 
said, just in time for the children's dinner, and I had 
not even remembered the circumstance until the mo- 
ment w^hen I fixed my eyes upon my little daughter's. 



99 



■>....^-.» ■■■..,., -^^.««^^.>..w-^ 



TELEPATHY 113 

With one exception I have carefully avoided the 
selection of incidents which represented a dream or 
death coincidence, because I did not wish to complicate 
the cases with any implication of a relation to de- 
ceased persons and unconscious mental conditions. I 
have tried to limit the instances to the waking state, 
with the exception mentioned. The advantage of this 
is that we exclude the natural interpretation which 
the spiritualist might give to the phenomena, though 
dream coincidences might not superficially suggest 
that view. But it is surprising to observe how many 
of the coincidences which I might have quoted were 
connected with the death of a friend or acquaintance 
about the time of the experience suggesting the fact. 
I shall have to recur to this again, as it suffices for 
the present to have a set of well-accredited coinci- 
dences which do not suggest the spiritistic interpre- 
tation and so involve us in less difficulty than this 
larger theory. The difficulty, however, may be less 
only because of the inveterate prejudice against the 
possibility of surviving identity and consciousness. 
Let this be as it may, the mental attitude of men is 
more favorable to coincidences that do not imply the 
existence of a soul. The prevalence of materialistic 
views makes many suppose that such coincidences may 
be explicable by " natural " means, and others, no 
matter how striking, become incredible just because 
they apparently contradict the materialistic theory. 
Hence it is well to have instances which do not invite 
any more objections than are necessary, and such as 
I have quoted, if numerous enough, would demand 
some explanation, if nothing more than chance guess- 



114 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ing or similar agencies. The few instances given are 
certainly not enough to afford anything like proof 
for telepathy, and must be supplemented by a large 
number of experiments to make them more than curi- 
ous facts suggesting inquiry. These spontaneous 
coincidences are more numerous, but some of them 
are too long to quote, and most of them belong to 
the class of apparitions and dreams. Such as are 
quoted, however, suffice to indicate the occurrence of 
incidents which make experimental investigation im- 
perative to decide whether phenomena suggesting a 
telepathic explanation may be discoverable beyond 
merely spontaneous occurrences. To these I now 
turn. 

3. Experimental Phenomena 

Whatever it was that suggested telepathy as an 
explanation of certain phenomena, it was imperative 
that the hypothesis should be tested by experiment. 
This was undertaken, often by individuals moved, as 
it were, by the condition of public opinion and often 
by scientific men who were bent on critical methods. 
In the instances of coincidence associated with experi- 
ment, I shall quote first a lay case which has the 
attestation of a physician in good standing, and 
vouched for by the Journal above quoted. The lady 
whose testimony he supports was one of his patients, 
and many of the coincidences concerned himself and 
his action, so that he can attest them. The lady kept 
a journal of her experiments and their coincidences. 
Some of the instances were spontaneous, and one of 
these latter coincided with the death of a relative. 



TELEPATHY 115 

But I shall quote only those instances which were 
experimental. Her physician says that her state- 
ments can be trusted. 

" Jan. 21st. I willed very hard indeed that Mr. 
Duke (physician) should come here before twelve 
o'clock, just to prove if I could bring him. He came 
just before the time. 

" Jan 24th. This morning I was thinking of Mrs. 
T. B., and said how I should like her to come in ; 
I wanted to speak to her. This was 11.30 a. m., and 
in the afternoon she came, and I told her I was think- 
ing of her in the morning, and she said she made up 
her mind to come while she was cleaning her kitchen 
in the morning after 11 a. m. 

" Jan. 26th. I am feeHng Mr. Duke will call. He 
did, before E. had finished dusting the room. I knew 
he would. To-night a rap came at the front door. 
I felt it was a poor woman named M., and I told 
Mr. S. (husband) it was, and I would not see her, 
and it was her. I had no reason for thinking it was 
her, only I felt it. 

" Jan. 31st. I felt Mr. Duke would come this 
morning, but he did not. 

" Feb. 1st. Mr. Duke came. I knew he was com- 
ing quite well, and hurried E. to get my room done. 
He said he wanted to come yesterday (Jan. 31st), 
but was too busy, he could not bring it in. 

" Feb. 4th. I was again talking about the B.'s 
in C. street, and they came in to see me. 

" Feb. 5th. Mrs. Ph. is not so well again. I shall 
hear from her to-morrow. 

" Feb. 6th. I have this morning received my note 



116 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

from Mrs. Ph. I feel Mr. Duke will come this morn- 
ing. Twelve o'clock, he has just gone." 

The record was kept for about a year, and in all 
numbers about 160 such coincidences. Any one of 
them might be explicable by chance, but, without 
essaying to urge dogmatically any other interpreta- 
tion, I think most people would agree that they ap- 
parently exclude chance very effectively. Indeed, 
many would prefer to believe lying to maintaining 
chance, and to the extent to which they would try 
to discredit the phenomena in this way they would 
admit that chance coincidence did not explain them. 

As experiments, however, they are too closely asso- 
ciated with spontaneous incidents to give them any 
but a suggestive force. A more striking set of ex- 
periments were by a man whom the chief men in the 
Society's Committee considered not only trustworthy, 
but also a careful experimenter. I refer to the case 
of Rev. P. H. Newnham and his wife. 

Mr. and Mrs. Newnham experimented with the 
planchette. Mrs. Newnham sat with this instrument 
to write out the answers to questions sent to her, in 
most instances, telepathically from Mr. Newnham. 
Mr. Newnham simply thought of the question he 
wanted answered, and Mrs. Newnham, not knowing 
what the questions were, wrote the answers automat- 
ically. I give the record made on the occasion, the 
questions and answers being as explained. All ques- 
tions in what I quote were telepathically sent. 

" February 18th. Q. Who are you that writes, 
and has told all that you know.f^ A. Wife. 



"n 



TELEPATHY 117 

" Q. But does no one tell wife what to write? If 
so, who? A. Spirit. 

" Q. Whose spirit? A. Wife's brain. 

" Q. But how does wife's brain know [Masonic] 
secrets? A. Wife's spirit unconsciously guides. 

" Q. But how does wife's spirit know things it 
has never been told? A. No external influence. 

" Q. But by what internal influence does it know 
[Masonic] secrets? A. You cannot know. 

" March 15th. Q. Who then makes impressions on 
her? A. Many strange things. 

" Q. What sort of strange things? A. Things 
beyond your knowledge. 

" Q. Do, then, things beyond our knowledge make 
impressions upon wife? A. Influences which no man 
understands or knows. 

" Q. Are these influences which we cannot under- 
stand external to wife? A. External — invisible. 

" Q. Does a spirit, or do spirits, exercise those 
influences? A. No, never (written very large and 
emphatically). 

" Q. Then from whom, or from whence, do the 
external influences come ? A. Yes ; you will never 
know. 

" Q. What do you mean by writing ' yes ' in the 
last answer? A. That I really meant never. 

" March 19th. Q. By what means are [Masonic] 
secrets conveyed to wife's brain? A. What you call 
mesmeric influence. 

" Q. What do you mean by ' what you call ' ? 
What do yoiL call it. A. Electro-biology. 

" Q. By whom, or by what, is the electro-biologic 



118 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

force set in motion? A. I told you you could not 
know more than you did. 

" Q. Can wife answer a question the reply to which 
I do not know? A. Why do you try to make me say 
what I won't? 

" Q. Simply because I desire knowledge. Why 
will not you tell? A. Wife could tell if some one else, 
with a very strong will, in the room knew. 

" March 26th. Q. Why are you not always influ- 
enced by what I think? A. Wife knows sometimes 
what you think. 

" Q. How does wife know it? A. When her brain 
is excited and has not been tried before. 

" Q. By what means are my thoughts conveyed to 
her brain? A. Electro-biology. 

" Q. What is electro-biology ? A. No one knows. 

" Q. But do not you know? A. No. Wife does 
not know. 

" Q. What makes you always call her wife? A. 
You always think of wife, 

" Q. But I never call her wife. Why do you? 
A. I am nothing without wife. 

" Q. That is no answer. Why do you call her so? 
A. Because she is all a wife." 

The number of perfectly clear coincidences in this 
series is remarkable and those which are not clear are 
relevant, and if they do not exactly answer the tele- 
pathically put question, they make an impressive case 
for the general appreciation of the question, though 
the answers may be enigmatic. But the sustained 
conversation carried on in this telepathic manner, with 
its pertinent responses even when not verifiable, intel- 



TELEPATHY 119 

ligent, or true, is a most interesting series of coin- 
cidences, however we explain them. 

From a long report by Professor Barrett, of Dub- 
lin, I select the following three incidents which repre- 
sent experiments made to exclude muscle reading. 

" 1. Miss B., seated at a table, with her eyes ban- 
daged, and a pencil in her hand. I stood behind her ; 
no word was spoken. I took my spectacles and held 
them in my hand ; she wrote ' Spectacles ' ; then my 
dog-whistle ; after this a key ; then a pencil ; all 
these she wrote down correctly. 

" 2. The same young lady, M. B., seated at a table 
with her eyes bandaged, pencil in hand. Her uncle, 
standing about twelve feet distant, asked, ' What 
word am I thinking of .? M. B. wrote ' Homo.' This 
was correct. 

" My daughter, who had recently returned from 
a visit to her brother at his vicarage, asked M. B. 
(who was again seated with eyes bandaged, and pencil 
in hand), ' Who preached at my brother's church last 
Sunday evening? the answer to the question being 
known to my daughter only. ]M. B. wrote the first six 
letters of the name, viz., ' Westmo — ' and then said, 
' I feel no more influence.' My daughter said, ' Lean 
your head against me.' M. B. did so, and then wrote 
the rest of the name, making it quite right — ' West- 
more.' " 

Mr. Edmund Gurney and Mr. Frederic W. H. 
Myers tried some interesting experiments with a sub- 
ject in which the agent held the hand of the percip- 
ient. This condition admits of the general objection 
from muscle reading, conscious or unconscious, 



120 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

though it will be hard to explain the successes and 
partial failures by this theory. They were assured 
that there was no dishonesty in fact, though the con- 
ditions permitted trickery of some kind, and the facts 
are not given as conclusive proof. The first experi- 
ments consisted of words or names thought of by 
the agent and trials by the percipient to obtain them 
telepathically. The following are the records, and 
the most interesting part of them is the half successes. 



WITH 


CONTACT 


Name chosen 


Answer 


Barnard. 


Harlan d, Barnard. 


Bellairs. 


Humphreys, Ben Nevis, Be- 




naris. 


Johnson. 


Jobson, Johnson. 


Regent Street. 


Rembrant Steeth, Regent St 


Queen Anne. 


Queechy, Queen. 


Wissenschaft. 


Wissie, Wissenaft. 



WITHOUT CONTACT 

Name Chosen Answer 

Hobhouse. Hunter. 

Black. Drake, Blake. 

The agent was ignorant of German and had to 
mentally represent the word Wissenschaft. 

The best type of experiment for testing telepathy 
is the drawing of diagrams or figures, and these 
should be of that character which will exclude guess- 
ing altogether. The simple geometrical figure will 
permit of many successful guesses, and hence either 
unlikely figures should be selected or the likely figures 
must have associated characteristics which are not 



TELEPATHY 121 

familiarly connected with them. Here is a record of 

some experiments. 

A triangle was drawn, base downwards, and cross 
lines within it. From the apex extending upwards 
was a straight line. The description given by the 
percipient was : " A triangle, with apex downwards, 
and some loose lines." 

The next figure was a triangle, base downwards, 
straight Kne extending upwards from apex, and a 
circle with the circumference passing through the 
comers of the triangle. In other words, it was the 
same figure as before with the addition of the circle 
as indicated. The description by the percipient was : 
" Triangle in a circle, and straight line pointing 
downwards" 

Noticing that the percipient saw the figures upside 
down instead of as drawn, they drew a human head 
upside down, with a pipe in the mouth, and two 
straight lines drawn upward and a Hne across their 
top. The percipient's description of this was : ' I 
see a sort of circle ; a streak, with a lump at the top ; 
an ' Aunt Sally ' sort of thing." The head of the 
figure was quite round and lumpy. Again he seemed 
to see the figure inverted. 

There were several other experiments involving 
more complicated figures which are more difficult to 
describe, and to give a clear idea of which would 
require a reproduction of the drawings. The success 
in them was of the same kind. 

There are interesting summaries of the earlier 
experiments by Mr. Gumey and Mr. Myers, Pro- 
fessor Barrett, and Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick. 



1£2 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

In Professor Barrett's, of thirty -three objects chosen 
to think of, twenty-five were guessed rightly ; of 
thirty-five names, twenty-six were guessed rightly, 
and of seven cards chosen, seven were guessed rightly. 
In all, seventy-five experiments resulted in fifty-eight 
correct hits. This is more than seventy-seven per cent, 
correct answers, which is certainly a very high per- 
centage, especially considering that the chances of 
success were very slight. In cards they were one to 
seven, but in names and objects they were almost 
indeterminate. 

In Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick's experiments the 
results were: Twenty-three trials, with six answers 
right the first time and six the second guess. Count- 
ing only the correct answers for the first guess, the 
percentage was one in three and three-fourths or 
twenty-six per cent, against one chance in fifty-two, 
or about two per cent., as cards were used. Pro- 
fessor Balfour Stewart reports a table much better 
than this. He experimented with numbers between 
ten and one hundred, with ob j ects, and names, as well 
as cards. 



Things 


No. of 


No. right on 


If first guess 
only counted 


Chances 


chosen | trials. 


1st guess 1 2d guess 


Cards 

Nos. 10-100 

Objects 

Names 


36 
20 
21 
8 


10 
5 

7 
4 


9 
3 
1 
3 


1 right in 3>^ 
1 right in 4 
1 right in 3 
1 right in 2 


lin52 

linOO 

lin40 

Indefinite 


Totals 


85 


26 


16 







To remove the objections which might be based 
very naturally upon fraud and suggestion in certain 



TELEPATHY 12S 

conditions, the Committee made experiments in which 
the selected objects were known only to one or more 
of the Committee itself, and the results were sum- 
marized in the following statistics, the things chosen 
being variously cards, numbers, and words. There 
were 497 trials made. Of these, ninety-five were cor- 
rect on the first guess and forty-five on the second, 
with five for the third guess. The chances for suc- 
cess were estimated as one in forty-three, while the 
actual success was one in 5^, or two per cent, for 
the chances and nineteen per cent, for successes. 

I shall choose an instance in which it will be in- 
structive to reproduce the figures chosen for transmis- 
sion. They are especially striking, and represent ex- 
periments performed by Mr. Malcolm Guthrie with a 
friend, and apparently it was impossible to question 
their integrity without involving that of Mr. Guthrie 
himself. Mr. Guthrie was a careful investigator, and 
describes the experiments as follows, of which the 
reproductions will give a clear account. 

" The originals of the following diagrams were 
for the most part drawn in another room from that 
in which the * subject ' was placed. The few executed 
in the same room were drawn while the ' subj ect ' was 
blindfolded, at a distance from her, and in such a 
way that the process would have been wholly invis- 
ible to her or any one else, even had an attempt been 
made to observe it. During the process of trans- 
ference, the * agent ' looked steadily and in perfect 
silence at the original drawing, which was placed 
upon an intervening wooden stand, the * subject' 
sitting opposite to him, and behind the stand, blind- 



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124 



TELEPATHY 125 

folded and quite still. The ' agent ' ceased looking 
at the drawing, and the blindfolding was removed, 
only when the 'subject' professed herself ready to 
make the reproduction, which happened usually in 
times varying from half a minute to two or three 
minutes. Her position rendered it absolutely impos- 
sible that she should ghmpse at the original. She 
could not have done so, in fact, without rising from 
her seat and advancing her head several feet; and 
as she was almost in the same line of sight as the 
drawing, and so almost in the centre of the ' agent's ' 
field of observation, the slightest approach to such 
a movement must have been instantly detected. The 
reproductions were in perfect silence, and without the 
' agent ' even following the actual process with the 
eyes, though he was of course able to keep the ' sub- 
ject ' under the closest observation. 

" In the case of all the diagrams, except those 
numbered 7 and 8, the ' agent ' and the ' sub j ect ' 
were the only two persons in the room during the 
experiment. In the case of numbers 7 and 8, the 
' agent ' and ' subj ect ' were sitting quite apart in 
a corner of the room, while Mr. Guthrie and Miss E. 
were talking in another part of it. Numbers 1-6 
are especially interesting, as being the complete and 
consecutive series of a single sitting." 

It appears that no doubt of the honesty of the 
" agent " and " subject " in this case exists, but out- 
siders would require that experiments be performed 
even in a more careful manner than this. But aside 
from a critical view of the phenomena, which it is 
not my purpose here to give, the coincidences have 



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126 



TELEPATHY 127 

a claim to investigation that may settle such an issue 
as they suggest. In later experiments these consid- 
erations were taken into account. The inaccuracies 
in the reproductions act decidedly in favor of the 
integrity of the experiments, but in deference to 
caution and possible doubts better conditions are 
necessary. 

Some very pretty experiments were performed by 
Professor Balfour Stewart, and among them were 
instances of drawings with reproductions quite as 
accurate as any that have been illustrated. It is im- 
possible to summarize them here further than to say 
that the reproductions show some interesting defects 
which have been regarded as the best part of the evi- 
dence for a causal nexus between what the agent 
thought or drew and what the percipient reproduced. 
For instance in one case. Professor Stewart thought 
of the small letter r, and it appeared to the percipient 
as a capital i?, the result being something like an 
hallucination. 

Experiments of this sort continued during the first 
eleven years of the Society's work, and extended re- 
ports of them were made. Critics and sceptics must 
go to its Proceedings for the measure of their value, 
and not treat the examples here as scientific proof of 
telepathy. I can only illustrate the type of phenom- 
ena which lay claim to that interpretation, and such 
as have reason to believe the trustworthiness of the 
experimenters and their conditions will be impressed 
with such as I have quoted. But I shall refer to two 
more experiments of an extensive character which 
have some interest. The first of these is by Mrs. 



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128 



TELEPATHY 129 

Sidgwick and Miss Alice Johnson in cooperation with 
Professor Sidgwick and Mr. G. A. Smith in connec- 
tion with picked subjects, and the second set is by 
Mr. Myers and Drs. Gibert and Pierre Janet in tele- 
pathic hypnotism. 

I shall abbreviate the account of 108 experiments 
by simply naming a few of the objects thought of 
and the answers given by the percipient. 

AGENT PERCIPIENT 

A little boy with a ball. A little boy with a ball. 

A kitten in a jar. A cat sitting down. 

Noah's ark and animals. A fly or bee. 

Christy minstrel and a banjo. Something long or round — a 

cage, a can. 

" " ** {cont.) A man's hand, a black hand. 

Sailing boat on the sea. Black man with guitar. 

" " " (cont.) A sailing boat. 

The result for the 108 experiments was divided 
into two classes, those when the percipient was in 
another room than the agent and those when he was 
in the same room as the agent. In the tabular sum- 
mary eighteen of the experiments are counted as two 
for each one, because there were two percipients try- 
ing to get the same message. But of the class when 
the percipient and agent were not in the same room 
there were fifty-five trials and only two successes, 
forty-four errors, and nine in which no impression 
came. When the agent and percipient were in the 
same room there were seventy-one trials and thirty- 
one successes, twenty-seven errors, and thirteen with- 
out any impression. This makes more than forty -three 
per cent, of correct guesses, which is a very striking 



ISO ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

result when we consider the nature of the objects 
chosen and the chances against casual coincidence. 
It is no less interesting to remark the failure as 
affected by distance and separation. There ought to 
be more experiments of this type. 

The next most interesting series in this same set 
consisted of attempts to produce anaesthesia in a 
finger of the hand of the percipient by telepathic 
suggestion. I first give the description of the con- 
ditions under which the experiments were performed. 

" The subject, who was always in a normal con- 
dition at the time of the experiments, sat with his 
hands passed through holes in a screen extended suf- 
ficiently above and on each side of him to prevent his 
seeing the operator or his own hands. The hands were 
spread out on a table, and the finger to be operated 
on was silently indicated to Mr. Smith behind the 
screen by one of ourselves, either by signs or in writ- 
ing. Mr. Smith generally said nothing while an 
experiment was going on, and he remained behind the 
screen until the testing was finished. The subject was 
frequently engaged by one of us in conversation on 
topics outside the matter in hand during the process 
of making the finger insensitive, but sometimes we 
encouraged him to attend to his own sensations with 
results which will be described below. When we 
believed the insensitiveness to have been produced, 
we ascertained, without moving the screen, which fin- 
ger it was in by touching the fingers with the point 
of a pencil or some other convenient instrument, tak- 
ing care to attack them in varying orders, sometimes 
beginning with the selected finger and sometimes tak- 



TELEPATHY 131 

ing it later in the series, so that no indication as to 
which finger we expected to find affected might be 
given by the order of testing. Occasionally the test- 
ing was done by one of us who was ignorant of which 
finger had been selected. Rigidity was ascertained 
by telling the subject to close his hands, when the 
affected finger remained extended. We often tried 
this before testing for insensitiveness, because it was 
free from the objection that in testing we might pos- 
sibly ourselves indicate the finger." 

There were 107 trials at the production of anaes- 
thesia by telepathy in a selected finger, the finger 
selected varying as required. There was, of course, 
one chance out of ten each time that the finger would 
be guessed, if it were a mere question of telepathy 
or getting what the agent was thinking about. But 
here the additional circumstance that anaesthesia was 
to be produced makes the matter more difficult and 
interesting. But of the 107 trials sixty-three or 
nearly fifty-nine per cent, were successes, four or 
more than four per cent, were partial successes, and 
forty or more than forty-six per cent, instances were 
failures. The chances against success were enormous 
when the whole number is taken into account. 

The next set of experiments are certainly most 
remarkable, and were performed by Dr. Pierre Janet 
and M. Gibert under the observation of Mr. Myers, 
who was merely an observer and of only a part of the 
experiments. They are cases of telepathically in- 
duced hypnosis, and the description of them explains 
the conditions and results. I give a few examples 
and then shall summarize the whole set. I give 



132 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Janet's account, which is translated in Proceedings of 
the Society for Psychical Research. 

" Sleep usually induced by holding her hand. She 
is then only responsive to the operator. He alone 
can make contractures disappear, etc. Gaze from 
operator's eye unnecessary. Slight pressure of 
thumb suffices ; but no pressure (except severe pres- 
sure on thumb) is efficacious without mental concen- 
tration — operator's will to put her to sleep. This 
influence of the operator's thought, extraordinary as 
it may seem, is here quite preponderant; so much 
so that it can take the place of all other influences. 
Will without touch induces sleep. Taking precau- 
tions to avoid suggestion, it is found that (1) 
M. Janet, while sitting near her, sends her to sleep, 
when, and only when, he wills it; (2) M. Gibert from 
adjoining room sends her to sleep, M. Janet remain- 
ing near her, but not willing; there is evidence that 
the sleep is of M. Giberfs induction, for she is in 
rapport with him only ; whereas had sleep come from 
suggestion of operator's proximity, the suggestion 
would probably have been derived from M. Janet's 
close presence. Nevertheless, she did not know that 
Dr. Gibert was in the house. 

" Oct. 3, 1885, M. Gibert tries to put her to sleep 
from distance of half a mile; M. Janet finds her 
awake ; puts her to sleep ; she says, ' I know very 
well that M. Gibert tried to put me to sleep, but when 
I felt him I looked for some water, and put my hands 
in cold water. I don't want people to put me to 
sleep in that way ; it puts me out, and makes me look 



TELEPATHY 133 

silly.' She had, in fact, held her hands in water at 
the time when M. Gibert willed her to sleep. 

" Oct. 9th. M. Gibert succeeds in similar attempt ; 
she says in trance, ' Why does M. Gibert put me to 
sleep from his house? I had not time to put my hands 
in my basin.' That the sleep was of M. Gibert's 
induction was shown by M. Janet's inabiHty to wake 
her. M. Gibert had to be sent for. 

" Oct. 14th. Dr. Gibert again succeeded in induc- 
ing the trance from a distance of two-thirds of a 
mile, at an hour suggested by a third person, and 
not known to M. Janet, who watched the trance. 

" On Oct. 8th M. Gibert pressed his forehead to 
hers and gave a mental order (I omit details, pre- 
cautions, etc.) to offer a glass of water at 11.30 a. m. 
next day to each person present. At the hour as- 
signed she showed great agitation, took a glass, came 
up from the kitchen, and asked if she had been sum- 
moned, came and went often between salon and 
kitchen; was put to sleep from a distance by M. Gi- 
bert ; said, ' I had to come ; why will they make me 
carry glasses .^^ I had to say something when I came 
in.' " 

Mr. Myers then quotes from his own experiments, 
extending over four days, and of which M. Gibert, 
M. Marillier, and M. Ochorowicz were witnesses. 

On April 22d, after several other experiments, 
" M. Gibert made a mental suggestion, by pressing 
his forehead against hers without gesture or speech. 
The suggestion (proposed by me) was that at 11 
A. M. on the morrow she should look at a photograph 
album in the salon of the Pavilion. She habitually sat 



134 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

in the kitchen or in her own bedroom and sewed, 
so this was an unhkely occupation for a morning 
hour. 

" On April 23d, MM. Marillier and Ochorowicz 
went to the Pavilion before eleven and ensconced them- 
selves in a room opposite the salon. At eleven 
Madame B. entered the salon and wandered about 
with an anxious, preoccupied air. Professor Janet, 
Doctor Myers, and I entered the Pavilion at 11.10 
and found her obviously entranced; eyes open, but 
fixed, anxious, wandering. 

" She continued thus till 11.25. We remained in 
a room where she could not see us, though, by look- 
ing through the partially opened door, we could see 
her. At 11.25 she began to handle some photo- 
graphic albums on the table of the salon, and at 
11.30 was seated on the sofa fixedly looking at one 
of these albums, open on her lap, and rapidly sinking 
into lethargic sleep. As soon as the talkative phase 
of her slumber came round, she said, ' M. Gibert m'a 
tourmentee, parce qu'il m'a recoramandee — il m'a 
fait trembler.' " 

The results are summarized in a table and it rep- 
resents twenty-five experiments in all, of which nine- 
teen or seventy-six per cent, were successes, and six or 
twenty-four per cent, were failures. The complexity 
of some of the experiments deprives the critic of ob- 
jection from chance, and apparently the phenomena 
present as good claims for a telepathic hypothesis as 
any one could wish, and the authorities who report 
them will not be questioned by any but the most 
rugged sceptics. There is combination of telepathic 



TELEPATHY 135 

suggestion and telepathic transmission of thought in 
the cases. 

My own experiments in phenomena bearing upon 
the problem of telepathy have been very meagre. I 
have tried it often enough, but succeeded in obtain- 
ing suggestive results but three times. I shall not 
detail these; they are not so good as those I have 
quoted. I mention them as representing a personal 
acquaintance with coincidental phenomena relevant to 
the issue, but not sufficient in interest to quote them. 
I need further opportunities and time to investigate 
the matter. 

When it comes to explaining such coincidences as 
have been indicated in considerable variety here and 
in much greater variety and complexity in the Soci- 
ety's Proceedings, telepathy is the term adopted to 
describe them. I repeat here that this term does 
not profess to imply any knowledge or belief as to 
the process involved, but only that the phenomena 
have to be given a classification which involves two 
apparently proved facts. (1) That the phenomena 
are not due to chance, and (2) that they have some 
causal connection, either directly or indirectly, be- 
tween living minds, and are not traceable to the ordi- 
narily known sense impressions. I give no other 
meaning to the term. I have no conception of how 
the connection is effected, but I think that the coin- 
cidences are not due to chance and that seems to me 
proved beyond all question. The popular notion of 
" thought waves," " brain waves," " thought vibra- 
tions," " electricity," and various allied explanations 
of the " transmission " I wholly repudiate, not as 



136 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

necessarily false, but as without any evidence what- 
ever. Those who have jumped to such conclusions 
for defining telepathy have prevented the scientific 
man from considering the facts that undoubtedly dis- 
lodge the theory of chance. The supposition that 
everything is due to vibrations is one that is borrowed 
from many speculations in physical science, where the 
supposition is frankly recognized as hypothetical and 
not as a proved fact. But there is even a reaction 
there now against this universal solvent by wave 
motions, even though it is an' important factor in all 
explanations. But however useful undulatory 
theories may be in the study of physical phenomena 
they have not yet found any rational place in mental 
phenomena. Let me urge, however, that I do not 
deny their presence or their possible explanation of 
all mental phenomena, normal and supernormal, but 
I deny that there is one iota of scientific evidence that 
they either characterize thought or explain it. When 
it is proved that vibrations constitute the nature of 
normal consciousness, we can take up the question of 
its modification and application to the supernormal. 
But we cannot apply it scientifically under any other 
conditions. Even if we could apply it, I do not see 
that it helps us in the explanation of certain aspects 
of the phenomena. It is easy to talk about vibrations 
in the transmission of thought when we think of the 
speculative analogies in telegraphic and telephonic 
messages, but the moment that we inquire critically 
into the matter the problem becomes perplexing. 
Suffice it to say that I refuse at present to have any 
conception of what the process is in what is called 



TELEPATHY 13T 

telepathy. I do not know how it is effected, whether 
by vibrations of the ether between two minds, 
whether it is by some physical vibrations non-ethereal, 
whether it is by some transcendental agency of an 
intelligent sort, or whether it is by some new kind 
of relation not expressible in terms of motion at all. 
I leave all these to the imagination. I confess entire 
ignorance in regard to the modus operandi of the 
phenomenon. It would be very desirable to know 
something about this, but I know nothing about it, 
and I doubt if any one else knows. All that I should 
maintain is that there is some cause other than 
chance for the explanation of such coincidences, and 
as they are of a type not found in normal experience, 
which depends upon gross sensory perception, we 
cannot do better than to classify them outside these 
experiences by the term telepathy, and insist that it 
shall define an exceptional causal nexus between two 
minds in the impressions they have. 

Those who rely upon a theory of vibrations, waves, 
and analogies of electricity in the telegraph and 
telephone for making telepathy intelligible, or ex- 
plaining it in terms of motion, do not seem to have 
the slightest conception of the difficulties involved 
in their comparison, or of the scientific man's per- 
plexity in connection with such a theory. We con- 
ceive in our common view that messages are sent over 
the telegraph wire or through the telephone, when 
in fact nothing of the kind occurs. To put it broadly, 
nothing but a mechanical phenomenon takes place 
in these processes and we interpret it, after having 
made a prior agreement in regard to what certain 



138 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

physical events shall mean. All that the telegraph 
does is to transmit certain vibrations, and by a 
process of previously arranged interruptions in this 
transmission we can use certain physical effects as 
signs of certain letters or words, and we then in- 
terpret these signs accordingly. No messages are 
transmitted in any psychological sense. None but an 
artificial connection exists between the message and 
the mode of transmitting it. Without this artificial 
arrangement no thought could ever be transmitted 
by the telegraph-wire. The telephone appears to be 
somewhat different. We obtain the voice in that 
instance, and the phenomena appear to be exactly 
like that of ordinary vocal communication between 
men. But here we have the same conditions that ob- 
tain in ordinary conversation, where we forget that 
the same general artificial arrangement has to be 
made in order to effect an exchange of ideas. In 
ordinary and normal modes of " transmitting " our 
ideas and thoughts we do not " communicate," as 
that word is understood in mechanical terms, but we 
interpret agreed signs. In our normal life our 
minds are as completely isolated from the " communi- 
cation " of thoughts as two people are isolated when 
no telegraph-line connects them. We have to fix upon 
certain signs or sounds as indicating certain ideas, 
and then infer that these ideas are present when those 
signs occur. Our limitations in " communication " 
with each other are quite apparent, when we think 
about them, in the meeting of strangers who do not 
have the same language. They cannot exchange 
ideas at all, except by contriving some suitable sym- 



TELEPATHY 139 

bols as arbitrary signs of the ideas to be indicated. 
All the vibrations in the world would not help them. 
They may talk all they please or they may produce 
all the physical phenomena they like, and yet no con- 
ception of the one would be intelligible to the other 
without the previous acceptance of a code or set of 
symbols related, but not identical, with the thoughts 
to be " communicated." In other words we do not 
" communicate " ideas in normal life, but we interpret 
signs. The vibrations of sound are not the communi- 
cation of thoughts, but they are only physical events 
which we use as we use the Morse symbols in the tele- 
graph. All that the telephone does is to reproduce 
the sounds that are produced by the voice, and we 
interpret sounds in this as we interpret the Morse 
symbols. 

The consequence is that vibrations are not the trans- 
mission of thoughts but the means by which we can 
infer the presence of certain ideas when we have 
previously agreed to indicate by these symbols what 
thoughts we have. We do not make telepathy 
intelligible by supposing thought waves, as we 
do not make the normal interpretation of " communi- 
cation " intelligible by them. It is precisely the 
absence of all such analogies between normal " com- 
munication " and telepathic " transmission " that 
makes the latter so inexplicable. It is not the vibra- 
tions in the physical world that transmit thought, 
and we have no reason to believe that any such media 
can " transmit " it in the telepathic phenomena. The 
term is but a name for a supernormal fact not yet 
made intelligible, and we have only to examine care- 



140 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

fully the real nature of telegraphic and telephonic, as 
well as ordinary " communication " of thoughts, to 
see that an appeal to vibrations does not help us to 
solve the difficulty. It only increases the perplexities 
already existing. 

I cannot enter here into any elaborate definition of 
what explanation is in things general, as that would 
require a chapter. But I shall briefly state that we 
understand things better when we find the familiar 
experiences with which they are associated. If we 
find certain phenomena constantly occurring in con- 
nection with certain others, we are satisfied that they 
are somehow necessarily connected. But if they are 
isolated and unfamiHar we feel puzzled by them. 
Now it is the isolated character of phenomena claim- 
ing to be telepathic that puzzles the scientific and 
explanatory mind. Telepathy is such an unheard 
of fact, so removed from all the known methods of 
communication between mind and mind, that we do 
not easily find the facts that make it intelligible, and 
wanting clear intelligibility for the understanding, 
it is either questioned as a fact or classified as un- 
known. I fully sympathize with this attitude of 
mind, even when I do not agree that it treats the 
phenomena rightly. For it is unquestionably correct 
in asking for some means to bridge the enormous 
chasm that exists between normal and supernormal 
phenomena, as it appears to our first reflections. 
Until it find some means of connecting telepathy with 
what is familiar, even though it be through more or 
less infrequent facts known to abnormal psychology, 
the term can stand for nothing but the fact of a 



TELEPATHY 141 

mysterious causal nexus awaiting further discovery 
and elucidation. Spontaneous coincidences show that 
it is a very sporadic phenomenon in our ordinary 
experience, and experiment shows that it is only less 
rare than the spontaneous. But in both we find a 
most interesting circumstance, namely, that it is often 
associated with certain peculiar actions of the mind 
that lie on the border-line of the abnormal. If, then, 
we can find its phenomena taking on characteristics 
of subconscious and abnormal mental facts, we may 
ascertain some clue to its explanation. Investigation 
and experiment along those lines which will ascertain 
the associations of the phenomena will reduce the 
perplexities in them. I shall recur to this in the 
conclusion and after I have discussed other types of 
coincidental phenomena. 

All that we are called upon to remark about telep- 
athy in the present state of knowledge regarding it 
is that it reveals a vast undiscovered field of agencies 
which our ordinary experience does not suspect. 
What is called hypersesthesia is a hint of it. This 
is a technical term for acute sensibility, and recent 
investigations have shown that remarkable instances 
of this acute sensibility exist, and in hypnosis it has 
been discovered that what there often passes for anaes- 
thesia, or the complete absence of sensibility, is accom- 
panied by very acute subliminal sensibility. These 
facts suggest a way to begin bridging the chasm 
between normal and supernormal experience. Hyper- 
aesthesia, as conceived in psychiatry, will not explain 
all the coincidences that suggest telepathy, but it 
may show to the physiologist that the boundaries of 




142 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

knowledge are not what he had previously supposed, 
and when this is once established he can present no 

,^ a priori objections to their extension by telepathy; 

\ and it is in this view that we discover the significance 

for a deeper conception of the universe than the 
grosser materialism of the past could dream of. I 
do not follow the hopes and speculations of those 
who talk about unlimited supernormal communication 
between mind and mind, and do not think that the 
present state of human development requires any such 
extensive process. I am quite content with the merely 
widening conception which sporadic phenomena give 
us in regard to the world around us, and so with the 
adjustment of life to the immediate environment in 
which we are placed. But history has shown us that 
man's best achievements are effected under the con- 
viction that his present knowledge does not end his 
hopes and deeds. If he can feel that there is still 
a wider territory to conquer, he will work with that 
in view, and any limitation of his knowledge to the 
grosser deliverances of sense will correspondingly 
limit hope and endeavor. The fact of telepathy, 
therefore, if only as a still undiscovered causal nexus 
between minds, has the virtue of assigning limits to 
an immoderate dogmatism that so easily and quickly 
associates itself with the pride of knowledge, whether 
it be religious, political, or scientific. I attach to it, 
at present, no other utility. This does not imply that 
its usefulness is small ; for it is not. Any such widen- 
ing of the processes of the world as it implies must 
effect as revolutionary a view of things as Copernican 
astronomy and Newtonian gravitation and perhaps 



TELEPATHY 143 

Darwinian evolution. But to have this povver it is 
not necessary to give it the conception which absurd 
speculations, physical and mental, advance to define 
its nature and possibilities. We are not helped by 
throwing the reins loose to the imagination and ac- 
cepting illusions instead of facts. We must first 
know the laws affecting the supernormal before we 
can trust our fancies with it. We may convince our- 
selves that we have opened a mysterious world, but 
this is not to determine its character. Consequently 
I would not press the phenomena of telepathy at 
present farther than to say that they reveal a mar- 
ginal world of activities which it would be well to 
explore. 



CHAPTER VI 

DREAMS 

The student of psychology has no perplexities with 
our ordinary dreams. He may not always be able to 
assign the exact cause for the matter of men's dreams, 
but he knows the general nature of the influences that 
determine their occurrence. But it was not always so. 
History and tradition show that it is only in recent 
times that the mysteries associated with them were 
successfully unravelled, though the intelligent of all 
ages may have discarded the romancing of the popu- 
lar judgment. I cannot here enter into any complete 
account of what ancient times thought of dreams, but 
I may briefly indicate the conceptions among savages 
and ignorant people. In so far as the records show, 
savages seem to have generally treated the dream-life 
as real. Intelligence had not advanced enough to 
enable them to discriminate between the experiences 
of noraial life and those of sleep, except to maintain 
that the two worlds were not the same, though ahke. 
The consequence was that, with the belief that the 
soul left the body in sleep, the savage had no difficulty 
in classing all types of dreams together, those the 
product of reciTidescent memories and those having a 
real or supernormal character. Many of the Greeks 
and Romans had much the same conception of the 

matter, though it is probable that it was derived from 

144 



DREAMS 145 

those dreams which were apparently supernormal and 
certainly coincidental, other types of them being dis- 
regarded in the unscientific condition of the age. 
Even the Epicureans admitted the existence of the 
gods on the evidence of dreams, but they gave them 
no power to influence physical events. Previous to 
the philosophic period of Greek culture dreams were 
looked upon very much as we find them in the Old 
Testament. The story of Joseph and his dreams 
illustrates what the Hebrews thought of them in their 
early history, and in both Greek and Oriental civiH- 
zations the same general view seems to have prevailed, 
namely, that dreams were revelations of the divine. 
In primitive peoples it was not so much a communi- 
cation from the divine as it was either experiences 
of the soul when out of the body in sleep, wandering 
about in another world, or communication with the 
deceased. That they were a revelation from higher 
powers seems to have been the result of a civilization 
infected with a more definite theology, polytheistic, 
or monotheistic. But until this more systematic type 
of thought arose the simpler view indicated seems 
to have prevailed. In fact we may suppose the poly- 
theistic theory to have arisen out of a modification 
of the theory of communication with the discamate, 
as there are many traces of this evolution in early 
Greece, the distinction between the gods and deified 
heroes not being clearly drawn. Before man system- 
atized his view of the cosmos, he had only his dream- 
life, illusions, and hallucinations to guide his specu- 
lations, and these took the form of perceptions in 
another world or communications with the deceased, 



146 ENIGMAS 01^ PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

which were Httle different from the former. " The 
New Zealanders," says Tylor in his Primitive Culture, 
" considered the dreaming soul to leave the body and 
return, even travelling to the region of the dead to 
hold converse with its friends. The Tagals of Luzon 
object to waking a sleeper, on account of the absence 
of his soul. The Karens, whose theory of the wander- 
ing soul has just been noticed, explain dreams to be 
what this la (soul) sees and experiences in its jour- 
neys when it has left the body asleep. The North 
American Indians allowed themselves the alternative 
of supposing a dream to be a visit from the soul of 
the person or object dreamt of, or a sight seen by 
the rational soul, gone out for an excursion while the 
sensitive soul remains in the body. So the Zulu may 
be visited in a dream by the shade of an ancestor, 
the itongo, who comes to warn him of danger, or he 
may himself be taken by the itongo in a dream to 
visit distant people, and see that they are in trouble ; 
as for the man who is passing into the morbid con- 
dition of the professional seer, phantoms are con- 
tinually coming to talk to him in sleep, till he be- 
comes, as the expressive native phrase is, ' a house 
of dreams.' 

" To the Greek of old, the dream-soul was what 
to the modern savage it still is. Sleep, loosing cares 
of mind, fell on Achilles as he lay by the sounding 
sea, and there stood over him the soul of Patroclus, 
like to him altogether in stature, and the beauteous 
eyes, and the voice, and the garments that wrapped 
his skin ; he spake and Achilles stretched out to grasp 



DREAMS 147 

him with loving hands, but caught him not, and Hke 
a smoke the soul sped twittering below the earth." 

Though philosophy tended to eliminate this belief, 
it did not wholly dislodge it. Like the belief in the 
oracles, it looked at the phenomena with a cautious 
eye and often accepted it in some form. Only the 
most radical spirits wholly overcame the prevailing 
superstitions. Plato admitted the divine manifesta- 
tion in sleep and a prophetic character for dreams. 
Aristotle was as wary as he had been about the ora- 
cles, and yet accepted the possibility of the popular 
belief. " That there is a divination concerning some 
things in dreams is not incredible," said that greatest 
of all ancient thinkers. The Stoics, if Cicero is to 
be trusted, reasoned that if the gods cared for men 
they would reveal their purposes in sleep. The Chris- 
tian Church could hardly escape the same admission. 
Its Scriptures were full of the doctrine, and one need 
only mention the fact to secure its recognition. 

But in spite of these facts, the natural tendencies 
of both the philosophic and the religious mind were 
away from the belief. The philosopher could not 
escape, after Socrates and Plato, considering the 
mind's point of view in the investigation of psycho- 
logical phenomena, and the Church had so idealized 
the conception of the divine and placed it so remote 
from human contact that its dispensation in the trivial 
rather than the weightier matters of providence scan- 
dalized the dignity of God. In the process of time 
the belief lost its hold, except to be held as a necessity 
of past providential scheme. Like miracles, dreams, 
as a vehicle of divine communication, ceased to be 



148 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

a source of revelation, and as philosophic and scien- 
tific views of man and his mental action prevailed 
the phenomena became the products of fancy and 
other " natural " causes. St. Augustine, devout a 
theologian as he was, was sceptical of their foreign 
origin, and thought even the most striking of them 
the product of imagination. 

The extent to which the older view prevailed until 
more careful observation and other influences modi- 
fied it is apparent in a statement of the writer in the 
EncT/clopwdia Britanmca. " In the De Divinatione 
of Cicero," says this author, " we have almost an 
unique instance among classic writings of a complete 
rejection of the doctrine of the supernatural origin 
of dreams, and of a full and consistent adoption of 
the natural method of explaining the phenomena. 
Cicero's position stands in marked contrast to that 
of partial sceptics, as, for example, Pliny, who 
seems content to exclude from the supernatural 
method of explanation certain of the more obviously 
natural dreams, such as those occurring immediately 
after food and wine, or when one has fallen asleep 
after waking." Among philosophic minds this view 
began to prevail, but among early and mediaeval 
physicians, men who were brought into contact with 
pathological conditions of the mind and body, and 
who were attached either to ancient or Christian 
views generall}^ there continued a belief in at least 
occasional supernatural dreams, while the admission 
was free that most of them were affairs of the mind 
and body. The rise of that psychology which recog- 
nized the active and subjective functions of the mind 



DREAMS 149 

strengthened this view of a " natural " origin, and 
the more that a scientific study of them was made 
the more acceptable became this position. 

I shall not discuss at any length the nature and 
causes of our ordinary dreams, as intelligent readers 
know well enough the explanation of them. We do 
not know as yet how to explain the material contents 
of many of them except in the most general way, 
but the fact that they are the result of definite and 
indefinite bodily conditions is so well recognized that 
we can make no mystery of their occurrence beyond 
the puzzling nature of their contents. Pressure in 
the stomach, in the blood-vessels, irritation in the 
sensorium, defects of assimilation, narcotics, muscu- 
lar fatigue, or any sensory stimulus, conscious or 
subconscious, and the thousand conditions affecting 
the integrity of the organism, avail to start a dream, 
and its contents may be anything as unrelated to the 
stimulus as the ordinary sensation is related. A 
story is told of a man dreaming that he was walk- 
ing on the ice at the North Pole, and awakening he 
found his foot out from under the bedclothes ex- 
posed to a cool temperature. A feeling of malaise 
may give rise to a nightmare in which the sensations 
are enormously exaggerated and distorted. I re- 
member once that work in a hay-field, more than ten 
years after I had been accustomed to work of this 
sort, resulted in a muscular condition which was as- 
sociated with dreams of my childhood that I had not 
had the like of for years. In fact I so seldom dream 
of my childhood that I might safely say that these 
were almost my only dreams of that period. Be- 



150 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

sides, my dreams are not frequent and not easily 
remembered when they do occur. Occasional dis- 
turbance in the stomach causes a troubled sleep with 
unpleasant dreams. Fear and anxiety will produce 
various types of dreams repeating features of this 
fear or anxiety in some exaggerated form, or objects 
wholly out of a natural relation to such mental states. 
I remember that anxiety about my lessons in the 
High School resulted in both relevant and irrelevant 
dreams. One author attributes the dreams of run- 
ning, flying, resisting, struggling, to certain condi- 
tions of the muscles. Experiments made by Maury 
showed interesting results. Stimuli were applied to 
a sleeping subject, and he was awakened to tell his 
dream. " When, for example, his hps were tickled, 
he dreamt that he was subj ected to horrible tortures ; 
that pitch plaster was applied to his face and then 
torn off." 

These are illustrations of external stimuli, at least 
most of them, but there are internal influences such 
as ideas and emotions, or such as are in the memory 
and representing the momentum of the mind's action 
before the suspended functions in sleep take place. 
They are associations with our previous states of con- 
sciousness. Only one type of these is particularly 
interesting here. It is a type mentioned by Maury. 
He found that automatic central excitations pro- 
duced dream images of objects which had never been 
distinctly perceived, and which nevertheless had left 
a trace of their action subliminally. This is a phe- 
nomenon similar to the instances of recall by crystal 
vision by Miss Goodrich-Freer, referred to above. 



DREAMS 151 

The bodily influences, therefore, which are the 
most frequent causes of ordinary dreams, are re- 
ducible to three general types. (1) Subliminal or 
unconscious stimuli on the periphery of the organism, 
and so the external sensorium. (2) Subliminal stim- 
uli on the internal sensorium or at any aff ectible part 
of the bodily tissue. (3) Central influences, cere- 
bral or mental, aff^ecting the mental action of the 
mind or brain. This may be, as intimated in one 
statement, nothing but subliminal mental states them- 
selves. They are all summarizable in the one principle 
of causality, namely, intra-organic and normal extra- 
organic stimuli or influences. The older theory sup- 
posed that the influences were wholly extra-organic, 
and so distinctly analogous to the influence of an 
external world in our normal sensations. Those views 
representing the beliefs of savages and the early 
Greeks show this very clearly. But the modern doc- 
trine, which is overwhelmingly supported by the facts 
of both normal and abnormal psychology, confines 
these stimuli to intra-organic agencies, at least for all 
ordinary dreams, which in their statistics show such 
uniformity in this respect as to make any other type 
of dream and influence very incredible. It is a 
natural maxim that we should not interpret a dream 
as anything but the result of some abnormal or sub- 
liminal stimulus within the organism and not ex- 
pressive of any external world in the form in which 
the dream usually represents it. If there is a normal 
correspondence between the dream image and the 
stimulus we simply assume that the subject is in a 
waking state. The dream proper shows little or no 



152 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

articulation between stimulus and product, the con- 
tents of the dream having no natural relation to its 
cause. Hence the attempt to make any mystery of 
dreams generally, to demand that they shall have 
some " supernatural " interpretation, or to seek some 
explanation of them in the influence of a supersen- 
sible world or agencies, now meets with no favor ; 
and certainly this sober and conservative view is the 
only safe one for all but the rarest exceptions which 
still have to have their claims tested. The whole 
burden of proof rests on the person who asserts or 
believes that any dream whatsoever has an extra- 
organic stimulus suggesting supernormal knowledge 
or agencies. 

But there are certain facts which make it possible 
that dreams may be occasionally induced by stimuli 
that are neither normal nor intra-organic. The first 
of these is the circumstance that, as the prevailing 
theory actually assumes, subliminal stimuli excite the 
dreaming state. It is, perhaps, this circumstance 
that gives rise to the peculiar nature of the dream's 
contents, and if it is subliminal in its cause it will 
only be a matter of the kind of evidence to find that 
the stimulus is extra-organic. We found in crystal 
vision that subliminal stimuli, that is, sensory im- 
pressions not noticed at the time of their occurrence, 
may be induced to rise into consciousness afterward 
by the crystal. In many cases the phenomena repre- 
senting a telepathic stimulus also represent hallu- 
cinatory results precisely like those of dreams ; and 
we also found that normal anaesthesia was sometimes 
associated with subliminal hyperaesthesia, which means 



DREAMS 153 

that, when we sometimes suppose that the mind is 
wholly insensible or inaccessible to outside influences 
it is even more sensitive to them than in the normal 
state, though the normal consciousness is not aware 
of the fact and does not remember the impressions, 
unless reproduced by hypnotic suggestion or other 
similar means. 

All these circumstances, the recall of latent and 
subliminal impressions by the crystal, the paradox 
of hypersesthesia when the sensorium shows normal 
anaesthesia, and the hallucinatory tendency of tele- 
pathic impressions, which are distant extra-organic 
stimuli, show that the mind may be affected by outside 
influences in its normal condition, and we might ex- 
pect that the dream-life should exhibit analogous ef- 
fects, and these we may find in coincidental dreams. 
It will be only a question of evidence to prove the fact. 
This evidence, of course, must be of the best kind 
and proportioned partly to the consequences involved 
and partly to the numerical character of the alleged 
coincidences. Whether we have this evidence suffi- 
cient in quantity and quality to accept the fact of 
supernormal dreams will depend somewhat upon the 
nature and number of the instances claiming that 
character, and there will be great differences of opin- 
ion regarding it, according to the attitude with which 
men's minds approach the facts, real or alleged. But 
whether provable or not, I shall give some instances 
of recorded dreams that certainly suggest some ex- 
tra-organic cause. In selecting illustrations I shall 
confine the choice to cases in which no supposition of 
ordinary hypersesthesia is possible. 



154 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

The first incident which I shall quote is confirmed 
by two other witnesses than the dreamer. I shall 
abbreviate some instances, but this one I shall quote 
in full. It is taken from Journal of the Society for 
Psychical Research. The reporter is a Mrs. Howie- 
son, the experience being her own and involving a 
distance of two hundred miles between the percipient 
and the supposed agent. 

" The incident which I promised to you occurred 
in June, 1883 (recorded in 1889). My eldest daugh- 
ter Kathleen, then a child nearly five years old, was 
absent from home on a visit to my mother, who lived 
in Newport, Monmouthshire. 

" For some months previous to her leaving home, 
she had been in a weak, nervous state of health, but 
an absence of three months in that charming county, 
and living almost entirely out-of-doors, wrought 
wonders for her. My mother wrote to me from time 
to time, saying how well she could climb the hills, 
and how her nervousness had given place to joyous 
glee, as she watched from a hilltop the ships sailing 
in sunlight up and down the Bristol Channel, or 
the wonderfully fascinating, gorgeous sunsets over 
Twm Barium, which even now she dreams of. 

" All my anxiety about her had vanished, and with 
my little baby three weeks old beside me, I was 
quietly sleeping when I suddenly awaked, hearing 
Kathleen call me, in a sharp, terrified voice, ' Mamma, 
oh ! mamma ! ' Forgetting that the child was away, 
I sat up in bed and called to my nurse, saying, ' Do 
see, nurse, what ails Kathleen,' ^ Why, ma'am,' she 



DREAMS 155 

said, * you've been dreaming, sure you know she's 
in Newport.' 

" Thoroughly awake, I laughed and lay down to 
sleep; but just as I was dozing off again, I was 
startled by hearing the child's voice calling down the 
stairs from the next floor, where she slept when at 
home, the same words, ' Mamma, oh ! mamma ! ' I 
simply screamed to nurse, ' Oh, nurse, I've heard her 
again, and there is something wrong with the child.' 
I trembled all over, the thing was so real; and yet 
so unlikely, that I allowed myself to be soothed, and 
talked into silence. 

" No sooner had nurse settled herself comfort- 
ably in bed, and I, broad awake, was lying wonder- 
ing about it, when Kathleen's cry broke on my ears 
again, a scream, ' Mamma, oh ! mamma, I've got 
scarlet fever, I've got scarlet fever ! ' There was 
no more sleep for me that night. My husband came 
in and tried to calm me, in vain. When the morning 
came he telegraphed to Newport, and this is the 
sequel : 

*"' The evening before, Kathleen complained of 
headache going to bed, and after she went to bed 
grew hot and feverish, so much so that my mother 
sat up with her, hoping to see her go to sleep. All 
the night she kept saying, ' I wish mamma was here,' 
' I don't know why I left my mamma.' But as the 
small hours of the morning drew on she grew so 
ill that my father fetched the doctor. On seeing her 
he said it was just possible she had caught scarlet 
fever, as it was very prevalent just then. Directly 
the child heard what he said, the wild scream I had 



156 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

heard broke from her, in the very words, ' Mamma, 
oh! mamma, I've got scarlet fever, I've got scarlet 
fever ! ' And nearly two hundred miles away they 
were flashed to my ears." 

Mr. Howieson vouches for the correctness of this 
story and the father of Mrs. Howieson, Rev. John 
Douglas, at whose house the child was staying, 
vouches for what occurred with the child, including 
the phrases which she had uttered. 

The next case also involves independent confirma- 
tion. It is a case in which the dream was repeated 
almost immediately after it first occurred, and is 
taken from the Phantasms of the Living. The 
authors of that work remark that it is rare that a 
dream is repeated the same night. 

" When we were living at Leamington, I had a 
remarkable vision. I was sleeping with my sister 
Maria. Suddenly the curtains of our bed, at the 
side I slept, were undrawn, and Mr. L. appeared 
standing there. He said, addressing me by name, 
' My mother is dead.' I tried to persuade myself I 
had been dreaming, and Maria said that I had dreamt 
it; but after a short time the same thing was done 
again, and the same announcement made. I was 
rather chaffed at breakfast because of the story I 
told. After breakfast I went into the drawing-room 
to practise. Presently I heard myself called, and 
I went out to the balcony to listen. It was the 
daughter of the man whom I had seen twice at night, 
and the granddaughter of the old lady whose death 
had been announced. She was riding on horseback. 



DREAMS 157 

She said, ' Have you heard? My father is sent for, 
and my grandmother is dead ! ' " 

The sister who was sleeping with the narrator 
corroborates the incidents. A curious feature of it 
is the vision of the old lady's son, he being alive and 
possibly sent for about the time of the dream, before 
or after. 

A Mr. Wingfield narrates the following as having 
occurred in 1880, and it was put on record in 1883. 

" On the night of Thursday, the 25th of March, 
1880, I retired to bed after reading till late, as is 
my habit. I dreamed that I was lying on my sofa, 
reading, when, on looking up, I saw distinctly the 
figure of my brother, Richard Wingfield-Baker, sit- 
ting on the chair before me. I dreamed that I spoke 
to him, but that he simply bent his head in reply, 
rose, and left the room. When I awoke, I found my- 
self standing with one foot on the ground by my 
bedside, and the other on the bed, trying to speak 
and to pronounce my brother's name. So strong was 
the impression as to the reality of his presence and 
so vivid the whole scene as dreamt, that I left my 
bedroom to search for my brother in the sitting- 
room. I examined the chair where I had seen him 
seated; I returned to bed, tried to fall asleep in the 
hope of a repetition of the appearance, but my mind 
was too excited, too painfully disturbed, as I re- 
called what I had dreamed. I must have, however, 
fallen asleep towards the morning, but when I awoke, 
the impression of my dream was as vivid as ever — 
and I may add is to this very hour equally strong 
and clear. My sense of impending evil was so strong 



158 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

that I at once made a note in my memorandum-book 
of this ' appearance,' and added the words, ' God 
forbid.' 

" Three days afterward I received the news that 
my brother, Richard Wingfield-Baker, had died on 
Thursday evening, the 25th of March, 1880, at 
8.30 p. M., from the effects of terrible injuries re- 
ceived in a fall while hunting with the Blackmore 
Vale hounds. 

" I will only add that I had been living in this 
town some twelve months ; that I had not had any 
recent communication with my brother; that I knew 
him to be in good health, and that he was a perfect 
horseman. I did not at once communicate this dream 
to any intimate friend — there was unluckily none 
here at that moment — but I did relate the story 
after the receipt of the news of my brother's death 
and showed the entry in my memorandum-book. As 
evidence, of course, this is worthless ; but I give you 
my word of honor that the circumstances I have re- 
lated are the positive truth." 

The correctness of Mr. Wingfield's memory as to 
date of his brother's death is confirmed in the London 
Times, and the Prince de Lucinge Faucigny, a friend, 
corroborates the story as having been told him by 
Mr. Wingfield on April 4th, 1880, in Paris, and that 
Mr. Wingfield showed him the note in the memo- 
randum-book. 

Another instance has similar corroboration. I 
shall abbreviate it, though it contains interesting 
details. A lady dreamed that she was looking out 
a window and saw her father driving in a sledge, 



DREAMS 159 

followed by another in which was her brother. 
" They had to pass a cross-road, on which another 
traveller was driving very fast, also in a sledge 
with one horse. Father seemed to drive on without 
observing the other fellow, who would without fail 
have driven over father if he had not made his horse 
rear, so that I saw my father drive under the 
hoofs of the horse. Every moment I expected the 
horse would fall down and crush him. I called out 
' Father ! father ! ' and woke in great fright. The 
next morning my father and brother returned. I 
said to him, ' I am glad to see you arrive quite safely, 
as I had such a dreadful dream about you last night.' 
My brother said, ' You could not have been in greater 
fright about him than I was,' and then related to me 
what happened, which tallied exactly with my dream. 
My brother in his fright when he saw the feet of 
the horse over father's head called out, ' Oh ! father, 
father!'" 

The brother confirms the story and that his sister 
told him the dream in accordance with the facts. 
The case, like many others, is regarded by the au- 
thors of the Phantasms of the Living as belonging to 
the weak class, owing to several circumstances, lapse 
of time, and the dangers of illusions of identity and 
memory. But they regard it as coincidental, never- 
theless. 

Dr. Robert H. Collyer, F. C. S., tells the following 
story, which is, of course, second hand, but is con- 
firmed by one of the living parties concerned. 

" On January 3d, 1856, my brother Joseph be- 
ing in command of the steamer Alice ^ on the Missis- 



160 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

sippi, just above New Orleans, she came in collision 
with another steamer. The concussion caused the 
flagstaff or pole to fall with great violence, which, 
coming in contact with my brother's head, actually 
divided the skull, causing, of necessity, instant death. 
In October, 1857, I visited the United States. When 
at my father's residence, Camden, New Jersey, the 
melancholy death of my brother became the subject 
of conversation, my mother narrated to me that at 
the very time of the accident, the apparition of my 
brother Joseph was presented to her. This fact was 
corroborated by my father and four sisters. Camden, 
New Jersey, is distant from the scene of the acci- 
dent, in a direct line, over one thousand miles, and 
nearly double that distance by the mail route. My 
mother mentioned the fact of the apparition on the 
morning of the 4th of January to my father and 
sisters ; nor was it until the 16th, or thirteen days 
after, that a letter was received confirming in every 
particular the extraordinary visitation. It will be 
important to mention that my brother William and 
his wife lived near the locality of the dreadful acci- 
dent, now being in Philadelphia ; they have also 
corroborated to me the details of the impression pro- 
duced on my mother." 

Mr. A. E. Colly er confirms the story. Various 
circumstances make caution about details necessary, 
but at least a most important coincidence seems to 
have been assured. 

There is one supported by the testimony of four 
persons, though it seems to have occurred while the 



DREAMS 161 

subject was wide awake, but early in the morning, 
so that it may be considered a waking dream. 

" About 2 o'clock on the morning of October 21st, 
1881 (recorded in 1883), while I was perfectly wide 
awake, and looking at the lamp burning on my wash- 
stand, a person, as I thought, came into my room 
by mistake, and stopped, looking into the looking- 
glass on the table. It soon occurred to me it repre- 
sented Robinson Kelsey, by his dress and wearing 
his hair long behind. When I raised myself up in 
bed and called out, it instantly disappeared. The 
next day I mentioned to some friends of mine how 
strange it was. So thoroughly convinced was I, 
that I searched the local papers that day (Saturday) 
and the following Tuesday, believing his death would 
be in one of them. On the following Wednesday, a 
man, who formerly was my drover, came and told 
me Robinson Kelsey was dead. Anxious to know at 
what time he died, I wrote to Mr. Wood, the family 
undertaker at Lingfield; he learnt from the brother- 
in-law of the deceased that he died at 2 a. m. He was 
my first cousin, and was apprenticed formerly to me 
as a miller; afterwards he lived with me as journey- 
man; altogether, eight years. I never saw anything 
approaching that before. I am seventy-two years 
old, and never feel nervous ; I am not afraid of the 
dead or their spirits." 

This narrative is signed by a Mr. Marchant and 
attested by three others who assert that Mr. Mar- 
chant told them of the experience the next day after 
it happened. Mr. Marchant had not spoken to the 
man for twenty years. 



16S ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

A gentleman reports a case in which he put his 
wife to sleep and she seemed to go into a dream 
state and remarked that she could not attend to 
certain things, as she was thinking out her husband's 
thoughts. He requested an explanation and the wife 
replied in her sleep, " About Jimmy B., it is so 
strange because I never saw him in my life; but 
you were thinking about him." The husband was 
ready to deny that he was thinking about him when 
his wife went on : " You w ere dreaming of him last 
night, and said, ' Poor Jimmy,' in your sleep, so I 
was obliged to follow out your thought this morn- 
ing." She then went on to remind her husband that 
Jimmy " had gone to a party with my brothers, 
sisters, and self; that he drank too much and was 
ill for several days at our house, my mother nurs- 
ing him." This Mr. Corder, the reporter, says hap- 
pened before he became acquainted with his wife, 
and he could not recall dreaming about the boy. 
But his sister remembered the circumstances and 
confirms the story of the boy's intoxication and nurs- 
ing. The authors of the Phantasms of the Living 
think that more information was given in the lady's 
dream than was likely to have been uttered by Mr. 
Corder in his subconscious dream. 

There is a very pretty instance involving the ap- 
parently simultaneous phantasm of the ideas in the 
dreamer's mind by the person concerned. 

" On June 10th, 1883 (recorded in February, 
1884), I had the following dream. Some one told 
me that Miss Elliott was dead. I instantly, in my 
dream, rushed to her room, entered it, went to her 



DREAMS 163 

bedside and pulled the clothes off her face. She 
was quite cold; her eyes were wide open and star- 
ing at the ceiling. This so frightened me that I 
dropped at the foot of her bed, and knew no more 
until I was half out of bed in my room and wide 
awake. The time was 5 o'clock a. m. Before leav- 
ing my room I told this dream to my sister, as it 
had been such an unpleasant one." 

The narrative is signed by Miss Constance Bevan, 
and her sister, Miss Elsie Bevan, confirms the state- 
ment that the dream had been mentioned before leav- 
ing the room in the morning. The following is the 
narrative of Miss Elliott, the lady whose death had 
been the subject of Miss Bevan's dream. 

" I awoke on the morning of June 10th (record 
dated February, 1884), and was lying on my back 
with my eyes fixed on the ceiling, when I heard the 
door open and felt some one come in and bend over 
me, but not far enough to come between my eyes and 
the ceiling; knowing it was only C, I did not move, 
but instead of kissing me she suddenly drew back, 
and going towards the foot of the bed, crouched 
down there. Thinking this very strange, I closed 
and opened my eyes several times, to convince myself 
that I was really awake, and then turned my head 
to see if she had left the door open, but found it 
still shut. Upon this a sort of horror came over me, 
and I dared not look towards the figure, which was 
crouching in the same position, gently moving the 
bedclothes from my feet. I tried to call to the 
occupant of the next room, but my voice failed. At 
this moment she touched my bare foot, and a cold 



164 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

chill ran over me, and I knew nothing more till I 
found myself out of bed looking for C, who must, 
I felt, be still in the room. I never doubted that she 
had really been there until I saw both doors fastened 
on the inside. On looking at my watch it was a few 
minutes past five." 

Miss Antonia Bevan states that " the first thing 
in the morning, Miss Elliott told me all about her 
unpleasant dream, before speaking to any one else." 
It is apparent that Miss Elliott's experience was not 
like an ordinary dream, though it has some features 
of this phenomenon. Whatever it was, its relation 
to the details of Miss Constance Sevan's dream is 
most interesting. 

A most striking coincidence is recorded in the 
dream of a man who made a note of it in his diary 
at the time, and this diary was inspected by Mr. 
Gurncy. I shall have to give the account in full, 
as it contains evidential incidents of some importance 
in establishing the probability of the story and the 
nature of the coincidence. 

" In December, 1881 (recorded in 1886), we were 
living at 6 George Street, Melbourne, Victoria. My 
father resided then, as he does now, at Phillmore 
Lodge, Kensington (London, England). In those 
da3^s I always went to bed about midnight. I awoke 
suddenly, tremendously startled by a dream that my 
father's house was on fire. The dream impressed 
me so vividly that I felt convinced that a fire had 
actually happened there, and, striking a light, I 
walked across the room to the dressing-table, on which 
my diary lay (I used generally to jot down the 



DREAMS 165 

events of the day just before turning in), and made 
a brief entry of it, there and then, first looking at 
my watch in order to be able to set down the time, 
which I found to be 1 a. m. I had, therefore, been 
in bed less than an hour, which of itself seems to add 
an extraordinary feature to the case (I refer to my 
sinking to sleep, dreaming and waking up, as after 
a long sleep, in so short a space of time). The entry 
of my diary is, as it was likely to be when standing 
out of bed, very brief: ' At night I dreamt that the 
kitchen in my father's house was on fire. I awoke and 
found that it was 1 a. m.' I kept my diary in a plain 
paper book; and the entry came below what I did 
up to midnight on December 22d. What I further 
still remember distinctly of the vision is this — that 
in it, the servants' bedrooms (which are really at the 
top of my father's house, while the kitchen, etc., are 
at the bottom) were adjoining the kitchen suite, all 
on one floor, and that the smoke and blaze seemed 
general. Further, I remember distinctly, though I 
just made a bare entry in my diary and hurried 
back to bed, that two of father's maids, named 
Coombes and Caroline respectively, were the only 
persons except myself present in the vision, and that 
I seemed to have no impulses and no power of mov- 
ing, but was merely a spectator; nor did the idea 
of risk to myself form part of the impression. 

" Six or seven weeks afterwards (mail contract 
between London and Melbourne is forty-two days) 
I received a letter from my father, dated December 
22d, 1881. He wrote, 'We had a fire on Sunday 
evening while we were at church. Coombes went with 



166 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

a wax taper to tidy her room and, I suppose, blew 
it out and put it down with sparks. Very soon after 
she left, a ring at the bell that the attic was on fire 
put Caroline on her mettle while the other lost her 
head. She dashed it out with water before the win- 
dow-frame was burnt through, and subdued it. 
Fifteen pounds will repair the damage — two chests 
of drawers much burnt, wearing apparel, etc. I 
gave her a sovereign for her pluck, as the roof 
would have been on fire in another five minutes.' 

" Now I wish to draw your attention to what has 
attracted my attention most. The Sunday before 
December 2Sd, 1881, was December 18th. I had 
the communication, therefore, in my sleep, not on the 
actual day of the fire, but on the day on which my 
father wrote the letter. At Kensington, where my 
father was writing, Australian letters have to be 
posted in the branch offices about 5 p. m. My dream 
was a 1 A. M. Time in Victoria 9% hours ahead 
of English time. When I was having the communi- 
cation, therefore, it was about 3.30 p. m. in Kensing- 
ton. Now with the mail going out at 5 p. m., 3.30 
would have been a very natural — I think I may 
say a most natural time for my father to be finish- 
ing a letter to me. [Mr. Sladen, Sen., confirms this.] 
I, therefore, had my magnetic communication when 
he was at once focussing his mind on me, and fo- 
cussing his mind on the fire, in order to tell me about 
it. 

" I have asked my wife, and she remembers per- 
fectly my waking her up, and telling her that I had 
dreamt that my father's house was on fire, and was 



DREAMS 16T 

so convinced of its betokening an actual occurrence 
that I should make a note of it in my diary there 
and then." 

This is one of the best substantiated instances on 
record, and one of the most interesting features in it 
is the form of the subject's dream, which does not 
show anything apparently clairvoyant, as phenom- 
ena of this kind often appear in the narratives after 
the event, but does show the transformation of a 
thought into a hallucination representing a perfectly 
definite coincidence, but not an exact replica of the 
facts. 

In another case a man alarmed the household by 
sitting up in bed and shouting as if in intense agony. 
Members of the family ran to the bedside and in- 
quired if he was ill, but he was found to be perfectly 
well and only dreaming. In the morning he seems 
to have remarked that he hoped that there was noth- 
ing wrong with his friend Barnes. By dinner-time 
a messenger arrived and told of the sudden death 
of Mr. Barnes more or less coincidentally with the 
dream. The next instance is a very pretty one in- 
volving coincidence with the thought of the person 
who can be presumed to be the agent. It involves 
an apparent representation of a coincident death 
which did not take place. 

" During our residence in India as missionaries, 
our children remained at home, either residing with 
my sister or at school, and about the years 1864) or 
1865 our eldest boy was at school at Shireland Hall 
near Birmingham. The principal was the Rev. T, H. 
Morgan, now Baptist minister at Harrow-on-the-Hill. 



168 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" One night, during the summer of one of the 
years I have mentioned, I was awakened from my 
sleep by my husband asking, ' What is the matter, 
J. ? Why are you weeping so ? I could let you sleep 
no longer, you were crying so much.' I replied that 
I was dreaming, but could not tell the dream for 
some minutes. It had seemed so like a reality that 
I was still weeping bitterly. 

" I dreamed that the sister (who acted as guardian 
to our boys in our absence) was reading to me a 
letter, giving a detailed account of how our Henry 
died of choking, while eating his dinner one day at 
school. 

" When sufficiently composed I again went to 
sleep ; but when I awoke in the morning, the effect 
of my dream was still upon me. My husband tried 
to rally me, saying, ' It is only a dream, think no 
more about it.' But my heart was sad, and I could 
not shake it off. 

" In the course of the day I called on a friend, 
the only other European lady in the station. I told 
her why I felt troubled, and she advised me to take 
a note of the date, and then I should know how to 
understand my dream when a letter of that date 
came to hand. Our letters at that time came to us 
via Southampton, and nearly six weeks must elapse 
before I could hear if anything had transpired on 
that particular date, even if a letter could have been 
dispatched at once; but it might not have been the 
' mail day,' and that would give some additional 
days for me to wait. They were weary weeks, but 
at length the looked-for letter arrived, and it con- 



DREAMS 169 

tained no reference to what I had anticipated. I 
felt truly ashamed that I had permitted a dream 
to influence me, and thought no more about it. 

" A fortnight later another letter from my sister 
came in, bearing an apology for not having told me 
in her last what a narrow escape from death our 
Harry had experienced, and then went on to detail 
what I had dreamed, with the additional piece of in- 
telligence that just as his head had dropped on the 
person supporting him, and he was supposed to be 
dead, the piece of meat passed down his throat, and 
he shortly revived, and was quite well at the time 
of her writing. 

" That boy is now a minister of the Gospel, and 
about a year ago I was talking with him about my 
strange dream, when a friend who was present said 
to him, ' Do you remember what you thought about 
when you were choking?' He replied, 'Yes, I dis- 
tinctly remember thinking I wonder what my mother 
will do when she hears I am dead.' " 

The husband confirms the story, and the son who 
had experienced the choking tells his thought at the 
time, and though it does not exactly tally with that 
reported of him by the mother, it shows that he was 
thinking of his mother. 

Another instance represents a man dreaming that 
he heard a cry of a woman calling for water, recog- 
nizing the voice of a woman who was in the hospital 
at the time. He named the woman at breakfast 
whose voice he heard. He then resolved to go and 
see the woman, and when he reached the door and 
was placing his hand on the latch to open it, he heard 



170 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

a faint voice saying : " Will some kind Christian 
give me some water? " He got her the water. She 
died the same week. The dream is corroborated by 
the man's wife. Another instance has confirmation. 
" On the night of Saturday, the 11th of March, 
1871 (recorded in 1884), I awoke in much alarm, 
having seen my eldest son, then at St. Paul de 
Loanda, on the southwest coast of Africa, looking 
dreadfully ill and emaciated, and I heard his voice 
distinctly calling me. I was so disturbed I could not 
sleep again, but every time I closed my eyes the ap- 
pearance recurred, and his voice sounded distinctly, 
calling me ' Mamma.' I felt greatly depressed all 
through the next day, which was Sunday, but I did 
not mention it to my husband, as he was an invalid, 
and I feared to disturb him. We were in the habit 
of receiving letters every Sunday from our youngest 
son, then in Ireland, and as none had come, I at- 
tributed my great depression to that reason, glad 
to have some cause to assign to Mr. Griffith rather 
than the real one. Strange to say, he also suffered 
from intense low spirits all day, and we were both 
unable to take dinner, he rising from the table say- 
ing, ' I don't care what it costs, I must have the 
boy back,' alluding to his eldest son. I mentioned 
my dream and the bad night I had had to two or 
three friends, but begged that they would say noth- 
ing of it to Mr. Griffith. The next day a letter 
arrived containing some photos of my son, saying 
he had had fever, but was better, and hoped imme- 
diately to leave for a much more health]^ station, 
and written in good spirits. We heard no more 



DREAMS 171 

until the 9th of May, when a letter arrived with 
the news of our son's death from a fresh attack of 
fever, on the night of the 11th of March, and adding 
that just before his death he kept calling repeatedly 
for me. I did not at first connect the date of my 
son's death with that of my dream until reminded 
of it by the friends, and also an old servant, to 
whom I had told it at the time." 

The incidents are confirmed by the old servant 
named and the date of the death by the letter con- 
taining the information. 

Professor Royce, of Harvard University, was 
chairman of the American Committee on coinci- 
dental experiences in the early period of the Amer- 
ican Society, and made a report on these phenomena 
collected in this country. Of his collection he re- 
gards twenty-two cases as pseudo-presentiments^ 
which, perhaps, would be better understood by the 
term illusions of memory. But he gives fifty-four 
instances which he regards as coincidental, that is, 
as representing events not known in any normal 
manner at the time. They are not all dream coin- 
cidences, some being waking phenomena. Whether 
they involve a causal relation in this representation 
may be a question, but there was a coincidence in 
them. It is possible that the twenty-two cases classi- 
fied as pseudo-presentiments were also coincidental, 
but the evidence was apparently not good enough 
to guarantee this, and hence it may have been better 
not to advance a positive hypothesis of mnemonic illu- 
sion without definite evidence that it applied. A 
judgment of non-evidential might have been the safer 



172 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

position. But I shall assume that either this view 
or that of Professor Royce is the true one for this 
class, and proceed to those which he regards as evi- 
dential of coincidence, involving the possibility of 
some unusual cause. 

The first instance was subjected to a most careful 
investigation for flaws by Professor Royce, and he 
found it strong in veridical probabilities. It would 
require too much space to quote details. I shall 
leave the reader to his report for these and merely 
give the person's experience. 

" I have not heard of you for an age. The train 
that should have been here Friday last has not ar- 
rived yet (w^ritten Wednesday at St. John, N. B.). 
I had a very strange dream on Tuesday night. I 
have never been in Ottawa in my life, and yet I was 
there, in Mr. E.'s house. Mrs. E. and the little girls 
were in great trouble because Mr. E. was ill. I had 
to go and tell my brother (Mr. E.'s son-in-law), and, 
strange to say, he was down a coal mine. 

" When I got to him I told him that Mr. E. was 
dead. But in trying to get out we could not do it. 
We climbed and climbed, but always fell back. I 
felt tired out when I awoke next morning, and I 
cannot account for the dream in any way." 

Inquiry showed that Mr. E. died that same night 
about midnight in Ottawa, and that it was normally 
impossible for the writer of this letter to have known 
it in any normal way. Another instance reported by 
a physician indicates a coincidence of some interest. 

" On the evening of the 29th of June, 1888 (re- 
corded in October of same year), my wife became 



I 



DREAMS 173 

hysterical for the first time, to my knowledge, dur- 
ing seven years' marriage. She had a paroxysm of 
weeping, almost violent, fearing some unknown dis- 
aster to some member of her family in France. This 
lasted about half an hour. On the 7th of July there 
was a similar attack. 

" A letter, bearing date of the 29th of June, an- 
nounced the serious sudden illness (apoplexy), al- 
ready of several days duration, of her father, and 
announced his demise on July 6th." 

The letter announcing the illness of the lady's 
father was received on July 10th, and that of his 
death on July S8th. 

A most interesting case was fortunately recorded 
on the morning of its occurrence. The documents 
were preserved. 

" A curious coincidence occurred this morning 
(April 27th, 1888), which I report immediately. 

" A young woman in our household. North Irish 
by birth, Mary B., said early this morning that she 
had had a bad dream in the night. Her mistress, 
an elderly lady and an invalid, in whose room Mary 
B. sleeps, complained of being very restless in the 
early part of the night, and of having unpleasant 
dreams, but she slept soundly later on. Mary B. 
then got to sleep, too, when her dream occurred. 
She says she saw distinctly the sister of her mis- 
tress — whom she has not seen in a year, and then 
only in a passing sort of way — standing on the 
threshold of the door, in a long black gown and her 
hands folded in front of her. Mary B. related this 
as soon as she rose in the morning to a member of 



174 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the family, and said impressively, ' I am sure some- 
thing is going to happen.' A half -hour later, the 
door-bell rang and the messenger handed in a tele- 
gram, wliich was brought to me directly. (Mary B. 
was then up-stairs, and knew nothing of it for some 
hours after.) The telegram stated that Mrs. D., of 
, had been taken suddenly ill and was not ex- 
pected to live. This was the lady (the sister of her 
mistress) whom Mary B. had seen in the night." 

Inquiry showed that it was between 11 and 12 
o'clock that Mary B. noticed the restlessness of her 
mistress, and that it was about 2 in the morning 
that Mary B. had her dream. The telegram announc- 
ing the sudden illness of Mrs. D. came at 8 a. m., 
and one of her death six hours later, 2 p. m. Mrs. 
D. was in delicate health, but that she was in danger 
of a serious attack seems not to have been known. 
The author of the narrative added in reply to in- 
quiry also that this Mary B. repeatedly had dreams 
of this character, and tells one of them. " About 
four months ago, she had a similar dream concern- 
ing her father, an old man in Ireland, the news of 
whose death arrived about a fortnight after." 

Whatever explanation be supposed of this, as all 
others, whether it be a chance coincidence or some 
extraneous cause, it has borne critical examination 
as against ordinary illusions. 

The next is also from a good source. I shall ab- 
breviate it and content myself with the statement that 
its credentials are unusually good. 

A gentleman lost his only sister in St. Louis in 
1867. In 1876 he was in St. Joseph, same State, 



DREAMS 175 

finishing up some orders as a travelling agent. 
While at his desk, writing his orders and smoking a 
cigar, he saw an apparition of this sister and noted 
a peculiar scar on her right cheek. When the man 
told his experience at home in Boston, on his return, 
his father ridiculed him ; but the mother rose trem- 
bling and nearly fainted away ; as soon as she suf- 
ficiently recovered her self-possession, with tears 
streaming down her face she stated that while doing 
some little act of kindness to the daughter's body 
she unintentionally scratched her face at that spot 
and obliterated all traces of it with a powder, and 
never told any one of the fact until that day. The 
son seems never to have known the fact. 

The chief interest in this incident is not only the 
coincidence, but the form that it takes. We cannot 
admit for a moment that a discamate soul should 
have a scar produced on the body after death, and 
hence we find, as in other cases, that the coincidence 
is between facts known to living minds. 

Instances like these could be related indefinitely. 
But I shall summarize those on record by saying 
that these are samples of 150 similar instances, with- 
out mentioning what are called " borderland " cases, 
which represent the experience as occurring between 
the waking state and sleep, and so not classifiable ex- 
actly with dreams. Of this borderland type there 
are 108 cases mentioned in the work quoted, the 
Phantasms of the Living. There are many such put 
on record since, but not yet published. The collec- 
tion is probably a small part of the whole number 
that have actually occurred in such experiences. 



176 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Even these instances can hardly be due to chance 
coincidence, especially when certain complex details 
are involved. 

But whatever may be said of these, the most inter- 
esting class, so far as chance coincidence is concerned, 
is what is called collective cases. These are cases 
in which two or more percipients have the same ex- 
perience at the same time indicative of a knowledge 
of the same event at a distance. It will be more 
natural for the sceptically inclined mind to dispute 
the objective significance of such cases as I have 
narrated, but it will not be so easy to discredit the 
collective cases on the same grounds. I shall quote 
some instances of this type from the Phantasms of 
the Living, 

A gentleman had a servant, Susan by name, who 
was taken to the hospital ill. It was seven miles dis- 
tant. " During Saturday night," says a Mr. 
Mathews, " the following mystery occurred, which 
has ever since been a puzzle to myself. Being asleep, 
I was awakened with or by a sudden feeling of terror. 
I stared through the darkness of the bedroom, but 
could not see anything, but felt overcome by an un- 
natural horror or dread, and covered myself with the 
bedclothes, regularly scared. My room door was in 
a narrow passage, leading to my mother's room, and 
any one passing would almost touch the door. I 
passed the remaining portion of the night in rest- 
lessness. In the morning I met my mother on com- 
ing down-stairs, and observed that she looked ill 
and pale, and most unusually depressed. I asked, 
' What's the matter .? ' She replied, ' Nothing ; 



DREAMS 177 

don't ask me.' An hour or two passed, and I still 
saw that something was amiss, and I felt determined 
to know the cause, and mj mother seemed equally 
bent on not satisfying me. At last I said, ' Has it 
anything to do with Susan? ' She burst into tears 
and said, 'What makes you ask that question .f^' I 
then told her my scare during the night, and she then 
related to me the following strange story, 

" ' I was awakened by the opening of my bedroom 
door, and saw, to my horror, Susan enter in her 
night-dress. She came straight towards my bed, 
turned down the clothes, and laid herself beside me, 
and I felt a cold chill all down my side where she 
seemed to touch me. I suppose I fainted, as I lost 
all recollection for some time, and when I came to 
myself the apparition had gone — but of one thing 
I am sure, and that is that it was not a dream.'' 

" We heard by the village woman on her return 
Sunday evening, that Susan died in the middle of 
the night, and that previous to becoming unconscious 
her whole talk was about ' returning to Troston 
Hall.' We had no apprehension whatever of the 
death. We thought she had gone to the hospital, 
not because she was in danger, but for the sake of 
special treatment." 

In another instance a lady, Mrs. W., sailed for 
America and took smallpox in Boston and died. 
This was about the last of November or the first of 
December. About twenty-four hours after her death 
and some time before the death was announced by 
letter, the deceased lady's sister-in-law, residing in 
London, England, tells the following experience. 



178 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" About the end of November, or the beginning of 
December, in the same year (1872), I was disturbed 
one morning before it was Hght, as near as may be 
between 5 and 6 a. m., by the appearance of a tall 
figure, in a long dress, bending over the bed. I 
distinctly recognized this figure to be no other than 
my sister-in-law, Mrs. W., who, as I felt, distinctly 
touched me. My husband, who was beside me asleep 
at the time, neither saw nor felt anything. 

" This appearance was also made to an aged aunt, 
residing at this time at They don Bois, near Epping, 
Essex. She told my husband as recently as the 4th 
inst. (1885), that the appearance came to her in 
the form of a bright light from a dark corner of 
her bedroom in the early morning. It was so dis- 
tinct that she not only recognized her niece, Mrs. W., 
but she actually noticed the needlework on her long 
night-dress ! This appearance was also made to my 
husband's half-sister, at that time unmarried, and 
residing at Stanhope Gardens. The last-named was 
the first to receive the announcement of the death 
of Mrs. W., in a letter from the widower, dated 
December (day omitted), 1872, from 156 Eighth 
Street, South Boston, still preserved.'* 

Here are three persons who seem to have had the 
same coincidental apparition, and the truthfulness 
of the personal narratives is vouched for by the 
husband of the lady, Mrs. Coote, who writes it. The 
next one is perhaps more interesting still, as it in- 
volves, according to the circumstances of the narra- 
tive, no comparison of experiences before the identity 
of the reference has been established. 



DREAMS 179 

" The first instance occurred when I was in Shang- 
hai. It was the month of May, 1854 (recorded in 
1885). The night was very warm, and I was in 
bed, lying on my back, wide awake, contemplating 
the dangers by which we were then surrounded, from 
a threatened attack by the Chinese. I gradually 
became av/are there was something in the room; it 
appeared like a thin, white fog, a misty vapor, hang- 
ing about the foot of the bed. Fancying it was 
merely the effect of a moonbeam, I took but little 
notice, but after a few moments I plainly distin- 
guished a figure which I recognized as that of my 
sister Fanny. At first the expression of her face 
was sad, but it changed to a sweet smile, and she 
bent her head towards me as if she recognized me. 
I was too much fascinated with the appearance to 
speak, although it did not cause me the slightest 
fear. The vision seemed to disappear gradually in 
the same manner as it came. We afterwards learned 
that on the same day my sister died — almost sud- 
denly. I immediately wrote a full description of 
what I had seen to my sister, Mrs. Elmslie (the wife 
of the consul at Canton), but before it reached her, 
I had received a letter from her, giving me an almost 
similar description of what she had seen the same 
night, adding, ' I am sure dear Fanny is gone.' 
When this occurred, we [^. e. Mr. de Guerin and 
Mrs. Elmslie] were upwards of one thousand miles 
apart, and neither of us had a thought of her being 
seriously, much less dangerously, ill. Before her 
death she had spoken of us both to those around her 



SSL 



180 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

bedside. She died in Jersey (England), on the 30th 
May, 1854, between 10 and 11 at night." 

These are samples of collective cases, and they are 
chosen from a list of forty-eight similar cases. One 
of them, the best extant and on record, is too long 
to quote, but it has the support of three intelligent 
persons as to the occurrence and the coincidence. 
Two of these are General Re3rnardson and Dr. G. 
Crichton. But I shall not quote further. What 
I have given suffices to indicate the character of the 
collective instances, and we have only the question 
of the credibility and judgment of the witnesses to 
decide in order to determine the importance of the 
alleged facts. The collection of them represents 
forty-eight cases, a very large number, considering 
the complications which must necessarily accompany 
such phenomena. 

When it comes to offering an explanation of these 
coincidences I think our first duty is to ask whether 
they may possibly be due to chance. It has, of 
course, been usual to refer them to telepathy, and 
the authors of the Phantasms of the Living think 
that they " may reasonably be regarded as tele- 
pathic." To approach such a classification of them 
they had to consider the question of chance coinci- 
dence, and I think that we may safely repudiate such 
an explanation as impossible, unless we had a census 
of experiences like them which did not prove coin- 
cidental, and which was large enough to make chance 
in these plausible. Excluding chance from them, I 
think the best way to indicate their nature is to 
regard them as at least pointing toward an extra- 



DREAMS 181 

organic cause of a supernormal sort. Whether they 
are telepathic or initiated by some other agency 
may remain an open question. But I think that they 
at least indicate an extra-organic cause distinct from 
the intra-organic stimuli, peripheral or central, and 
also distinct from normal extra-organic stimuli. We 
may introduce all the hallucinatory elements we 
please into the result, — and they are apparently 
present in some of them, — yet they represent such 
reference to events at a distance that we can hardly 
refuse them a supernormal cause of some kind, and 
so may have a right to assume that experiences, sub- 
jectively like internally initiated states, may have 
a foreign source, and it would remain to investigate 
this cause more carefully. 

That they may be telepathic is apparently sup- 
ported by the peculiar character of some of them, 
representing the thoughts of persons at a distance, 
and not a corresponding physical event. Take the 
case of the dream in which a lady's son appeared to 
have died from choking. The death did not take 
place, but the boy had the choking fit, and seems to 
have actually thought of his mother. The reader 
may notice that a number of the instances represent 
this sort of characteristics, and they were quoted 
purposely to call attention to the fact. No one can 
obviously insist that the coincidences of this kind 
have an explanation necessarily in discamate agency, 
since the incidents are not evidence of such influences. 
They, on the contrary, seem to support a direct 
connection between living minds, and we should most 
naturally resort to something like telepathy as the 



182 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

more plausible hypothesis, though we should require 
experimental evidence to justify even this applica- 
tion of it, and I think this evidence is illustrated in 
the previous chapter. 

The most interesting circumstance, however, is the 
fact that most of the coincidences relate to the con- 
temporary illness or death of a certain person, and 
that the number of the coincidences is much greater 
for the dream-life than for the waking state. The 
spontaneous coincidences of the waking state are 
much less numerous than those of sleep, and in 
nearly all cases they are in some way related to crit- 
ical moments of some kind, and mostly of severe ill- 
nesses and death. Probably we should find in the 
end that the large majority of them are death coin- 
cidences, and this fact alone gives them an extraor- 
dinary interest, though we may have to prosecute our 
inquiries much further before venturing upon an 
hypothesis to explain this peculiar feature of them. 
Superficially, however, they open an inquiry of vast 
proportions, and if for no other reason than for 
protection against erroneous interpretation of them, 
they make careful investigation imperative. 



CHAPTER VII 



APPARITIONS 



An intelligent public cannot restrain a smile when 
a man begins to talk seriously of " ghosts." The 
topic in all respectable quarters is a subject for 
humor and mirth. The reason for this is not far 
to seek. We have escaped the superstitions of an- 
tiquity and the middle ages. A very slight ac- 
quaintance with those periods reveals the most ex- 
traordinary and incredible stories about the visita- 
tions of departed spirits. It would be a useless and 
perhaps a thankless task here to detail any of the 
conceptions maintained by early civilizations, as they 
have little but an antiquarian interest for all but 
the psychic researcher. Besides it would take up too 
much space, and I must content myself with the bare 
fact that apparitions are phenomena which are older 
than the recent investigations into their real or al- 
leged meaning. 

I have one precaution to indicate for the reader, 
and that is, that we are not obliged to respect the 
public's attitude in such matters in our demand for 
scientific examination of either the fact or the belief 
In " ghosts." The public is usually interested in 
the sensational or the humorous side of the matter, 
and the scientific mind in the explanation of facts 

183 



184 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

regardless of the question whether they have any 
bearing at all upon the reality of events alleg- 
ing a source outside the person experiencing them. 
There are reasons enough for recognizing the healthi- 
ness of popular scepticism about apparitions without 
assuming that its conceptions of the issues involved 
are correct. If the phenomena laying claim to be- 
ing " ghosts " or apparitions were no better sup- 
ported than are the stories of antiquity and the 
middle ages we might well disregard them, but we 
are so familiar with the phenomena in our asylums 
that we can easily distinguish between their value 
for reality and their importance for psychiatry or 
abnormal psychology. If we knew no more about 
the mind than did our ancestors we might well feel 
uncanny at such stories as once obtained credence, but 
we are so familiar with illusions, hallucinations, and 
the products of the imagination that we are not 
disposed to take seriously the accounts of hysterical 
people in the matter of apparitions. 

I think, however, we may be able to impress some 
scientific men and more intelligent laymen, who have 
scientific and ethical impulses, to examine persistent 
stories which affect human belief for good or ill, 
and to bring them under such surveillance as will 
enable us to guide the less intelligent into accurate 
opinions on such phenomena. I beseech no other in- 
terest here in the attempt to examine seriously the 
allegations of men from time immemorial. While 
I shall vie with any one in the humorous aspects of 
such a question, I shall not waste my time trying to 
prove my sanity on the subject by indulging wit 



APPARITIONS 185 

or humor about it. There are better reasons in this 
unsettled age and in the vagaries of many people 
for examining the phenomena and for reducing them 
to some intelligible order, even though that be only 
one of systematic delusion. 

An apparition or " ghost," at least in the popular 
mind, is supposed to represent a departed spirit, and 
so claims to be more than a product of fancy. It 
is supposed to have the same reahty, though of a 
different kind, spiritual as distinct from physical, 
as the external objects which affect our senses. But 
we have found so many alleged cases of this vanish- 
ing into the limbo of illusion and dreams that we are 
rightly chary of admitting any objective reality for 
their appearance unless credentials very different 
from such as we usually find are produced to make 
them credible. 

As illustrations of credible experiences that can be 
proved to have no such reality as popular credulity 
assigns them I may narrate the following incidents, 
coming from excellent authorities. 

James Beattie, the poet and philosopher, whose 
sympathies might naturally have enlisted him in the 
support of the reality of apparitions, tells the fol- 
lowing interesting experiences, which show how 
quickly the popular conception vanishes when intelli- 
gent men tell their observations. 

" By the glimmering of the moon, I have once 
and again beheld, at midnight, the exact form of 
a man or woman, sitting silent and motionless by 
my bedside. Had I hid my head, without daring to 
look the apparition in the face, I should have passed 



186 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the night in horror, and risen in the morning with 
the persuasion of having seen a ghost. But, rousing 
myself, and resolving to find out the truth, I dis- 
covered that it was nothing more than the acci- 
dental disposition of my clothes upon a chair. Once 
I remember to have been alarmed at seeing, by the 
faint light of the dawn, a coffin laid out between 
my bed and window. I started up, and recollecting 
that I had heard of such things having been seen 
by others, I set myself to examine it, and found it 
was only a stream of yellowish light, falling in a 
particular manner upon the floor, from between the 
window curtains. And so lively was the appearance, 
that, after I was thoroughly satisfied of the cause, it 
continued to impose on my sight as before, till the 
increased light of the morning dispelled it. These 
facts are perhaps too trivial to be recorded; but 
they serve to show that free inquiry, with a very 
small degree of fortitude, may sometimes, when one 
is willing to be rational, prove a cure to certain dis- 
eases of the imagination." 

Doctor Carpenter quotes a narrative from Sir 
Walter Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, giv- 
ing the experience of that author while " engaged 
in reading with much interest, after the death of 
Lord B^^ron, an account of his habits and opinions." 
The narrative is written in the third person. 

" Passing from his sitting-room into the entrance- 
hall, fitted up with the skins of wild beasts, armor, 
etc., he saw right before him, and in a standing pos- 
ture, the exact representation of his departed friend 
^(Byron), whose recollection had been so strongly 



APPARITIONS 187 

brought to his imagination. He stopped for a sin- 
gle moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy 
with which fancy had impressed upon the bodily 
eye the peculiarities of dress and posture of the illus- 
trious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion, he 
felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraor- 
dinary accuracy of the resemblance ; and stepped 
onwards towards the figure, which resolved itself, 
as he approached, into the various materials of 
which it was composed. These were merely a screen 
occupied by greatcoats, shawls, plaids, and such 
other articles as are usually found in a country 
entrance-hall. Sir Walter returned to the spot 
from which he had seen this product of what may 
be called imagination proper, and tried with all his 
might to recall it by force of will, but in vain.'' 

Doctor Tuke mentions a case quoted by Doctor 
Carpenter, It is the case of an apparition of an 
ape, and seems also to have been a collective one, 
that is, seen simultaneously by more than one person. 
The instance would be inconceivable but for the 
authority from which it comes and from the report 
of Leon Marillier on the apparition of the Virgin 
at Dordogne, in France, where a large number of 
people, evidently influenced by suggestion, seem to 
have had an apparition of the Virgin after a little 
girl of neurotic character reported her experience 
in seeing the same in a grotto. But I return to 
Doctor Tuke's instance, so extraordinary that we may 
well feel justified in scepticism of the truth of the 
story, without having any temptations to treat it 
even as seriously as an hallucination. 



188 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" During the conflagration at the Crystal Palace 
in the winter of 1866 - 67, when the animals were 
dcstro3'ed by the fire, it was supposed that the chim- 
panzee had succeeded in escaping from his cage. 
Attracted to the roof, with this expectation in full 
force, men saw the unhappy animal holding on to 
it, and writhing in agony to get astride one of the 
iron ribs. It need not be said that its struggles were 
watched by those below with breathless suspense, and, 
as the newspapers informed us, ' with sickening 
dread.' But there was no animal whatever there; 
and all this feeling was thrown away upon a tattered 
piece of blind, so torn as to resemble, to the eyes of 
fancy, the bod3^, arms, and legs of an ape." 

Dr. Hibbert mentions an interesting case in his 
Treatise on ApparitionSy and it is a fine sailor's story. 

" A whole ship's company was thrown into the 
utmost consternation, by the apparition of a cook 
who had died a few days before. He was distinctly 
seen walking ahead of the ship, with a peculiar gait 
by which he was distinguished when alive, through 
having one of his legs shorter than the other. On 
steering the ship towards the object, it was found 
to be a piece of floating wreck." 

I take a more recent instance recorded by Pro- 
fessor Sorlc}^ in the Census of Halhwinat'ionSy pub- 
lished by the Society for Psychical Research, under 
the signatures of Professor Sidgwick, Mr. F. W. H. 
Myers, Miss Johnson, IMr. Podmore, and Mrs. Sidg- 
wick. 

" Lying in bed," says Professor Sorley, " facing 
the window, and opening my eyes voluntarily in order 



APPARITIONS 189 

to drive away the imagery of an unpleasant dream 
which was beginning to revive, I saw the figure of 
a man, some three or four feet distant from my head, 
standing perfectly still by the bedstead, so close 
to it that the bedclothes seemed slightly pushed 
towards me by his leg pressing against them. The 
image was perfectly distinct — height about five feet 
eight inches, sallow complexion, grey eyes, greyish 
mustache, short and bristly, and apparently recently 
clipped. His dress seemed like a dark grey dress- 
ing-gown, tied with a dark red rope. 

" My first thought was, ' That's a ghost ; ' my 
second, ' It may be a burglar whose designs upon 
my watch are interrupted by my opening my eyes.' 
I bent forward towards him, and the image vanished. 

" As the image vanished, my attention passed to 
a shadow on the wall, twice or three times the dis- 
tance off, and perhaps twelve feet high. There was 
a gas lamp in the mews-lane outside, which shed a 
light through the lower twelve inches or so of the 
(first floor) window, over which the blind had not 
been completely drawn, and the shadow was cast by 
the curtain hanging beside the window. The soli- 
tary bit of color in the image — the red rope of the 
dressing-gown — was immediately identified with the 
twisted mahogany handle of the dressing-table, 
which was in the same line of vision as part of the 
shadow." 

I shall relate one more because it was so carefully 
examined, and its illusory nature so clearly deter- 
mined. It is by a lady. 

One evening at dusk I went into my bedroom to 



(( 



190 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

fetch something I wanted off the mantelpiece. A 
street lamp threw a slanting ray of light in at the 
window, just sufficient to enable me to discern the 
dim outline of the chief articles of furniture in the 
room. I was cautiously feeling for what I wanted 
when, partially turning round, I perceived at a short 
distance behind me a figure of a Httle old lady, 
sitting very sedately with her hands folded in her 
lap, holding a white pocket-handkerchief. I was 
much startled, for I had not before seen any one in 
the room, and called out, ' Who's that.? ' but received 
no answer, and, turning quite round to face my vis- 
itor, she immediately vanished from sight. ' Well,' 
I thought, ' this is strange ! ' I had left all the rest 
of the household down-stairs ; it was hardly possible 
that any one could have followed me into the room 
without my being aware of it, and besides, the old 
lady was quite different from any one I had ever 
seen. Being very near-sighted, I began to think my 
eyes had played me a trick ; so I resumed my search 
in as nearly as possible the same position as before, 
and having succeeded, was turning to come away, 
when lo ! and behold ! there sat the little old lady 
as distinct as ever, with her funny little cap, dark 
dress, and hands folded demurely over her white 
handkerchief. This time I turned round quickly 
and marched up to the apparition, which vanished 
as suddenly as before. And now being convinced 
that no one was playing me any trick, I determined 
to find out, if possible, the why and because of the 
mystery. Slowly resuming my former position by 
the fireplace, and again percei^dng the figure, I 



APPARITIONS 191 

moved my head slightly from side to side, and found 
that it did the same, I then went slowly backwards, 
keeping my head still until I reached the same place, 
when deliberately turning round the mystery was 
solved. 

" A small, polished mahogany stand near the 
window, which I used as a cupboard for various 
trifles, made the body of the figure, a piece of paper 
hanging from the partly open door serving as the 
handkerchief; a vase on the top formed the head 
and dress, and the slanting light falling upon it 
and the white curtain of the window completed the 
illusion. I destroyed and remade the figure several 
times, and was surprised to find how distinct it ap- 
peared when the exact relative positions were main- 
tained." 

Both these instances involved that kind of investi- 
gation by the subjects of them that is necessary to 
prove the character of any experience of the kind. 
They are not such as can be merely explained by 
the hypothesis of hallucination, but they are proved 
hallucinations or illusions. They are evidentially 
supported, and would not stand the examination for 
any other than a subjective reality. There are sev- 
eral other similar instances which I shall not quote. 
I have given sufficient to show what the scientific 
man will be on the alert for before he admits any 
other meaning than hallucination for similar expe- 
riences. 

If any story of an apparition Is told it must pre- 
sent certain credentials to give it more than a hallu- 
cinatory character ; that is, more than a merely sub- 



192 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

jective creation, peripherally or centrally initiated. 
There are at least two circumstances which must be 
proved regarding such experiences to give them 
what is called a veridical nature, that is, a definite 
causal connection with external reality not normally 
perceived. They are (1) that the experience shall 
coincide with a corresponding event at such a dis- 
tance as precludes normal sensory perception, and 
(2) the subject of the experience must not have 
known at the time the event represented. Without 
the fulfilment of these conditions such experiences 
cannot escape the objection that they are hallucina- 
tions. But if a sufficient number of coincidental ap- 
paritions occurs, having such credentials as I have 
indicated, the question of their extra-organic ini- 
tiation will become as serious a problem as that of 
coincidental dreams. 

Now it happens that there is a large number of 
such experiences, and the first question is whether 
they are due to chance. This cannot be determined 
until we know the facts of the case and the details 
of the experiences. Prior to illustrating them I 
shall classify them with reference to the difficulties 
in explaining them. The scepticism of their veridi- 
cal nature is so obstinate, and possibly justly so, 
that we must take the phenomena in the types which 
suggest less doubt as to their source. No one hesi- 
tates about such as I have illustrated, and only when 
a claim to the supernormal origin of some of them 
is put forward, whether by telepathy or other agen- 
cies, do men stand stolidly for the sceptical view 
regarding the facts. If, however, we can find well-- 



APPARITIONS 193 

authenticated instances of apparitions that do not 
represent departed spirits we may obtain a hearing. 
Such would be phantasms of the hving. Fortunately 
we have instances of this type. Then there is a 
type coinciding with the deaths of the persons repre- 
sented, and lastly there are those involving the ap- 
pearance of persons who have been deceased for a 
longer or shorter period. I can classify them briefly, 
as (1) Apparitions of the Living, (2) Apparitions 
of the Dying, and (3) Apparitions of the Dead. 

1. Apparitions of the Living 

As I have already hinted, the sceptic cannot pro- 
duce against alleged apparitions of the living the 
same objections which he inclines to use against al- 
leged cases of the dead. The doubts about personal 
survival after death, or the suspicions created and 
sustained by a long history of scientific criticism of 
alleged spiritistic phenomena, start objections to 
" ghost " stories so determined that it is impossible 
to secure even the consideration of the evidence for 
even a more natural theory of the facts. But these 
prejudices cannot be invoked against phantasms or 
apparitions of the living. The question is, do such 
phenomena occur, not what explanation of them is 
possible. Of this last we can speak, if we can assure 
ourselves that they occur in sufficient numbers to 
exclude chance coincidence from their explanation. 
The primary problem in such cases is to establish 
an actual coincidence between the apparition and the 
event at a distance which it is supposed to represent. 



194 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

It is the fact of significant coincidence, not the mode 
of it, that first requires proof, and this result can 
be achieved only by such a number of them evi- 
dentially sustained as will force conviction precisely 
as did stories of falling meteors. Of this first class 
I shall proceed to give such illustrations as have re- 
ceived proper record and examination to give them 
some sort of respectable authenticity. 

The primary interest of such cases is that they 
possess a verifiable character, which consists in the 
establishment of the extraneous event to which the 
subject's experience corresponds. We do not always 
have to rely upon the testimony of a single person 
for the integrity of the story. Often two parties at 
least can attest the coincidence, or each the fact 
which helps to fix the coincidence. The ordinary 
objections to the truthfulness of such narratives do 
not apply, and scepticism will have to accuse the 
persons concerned of conspiracy or resort to the 
theory of chance. Scepticism has its rights unless 
these conditions are fulfilled. 

In selecting my instances I shall first take a type 
which may supposably be due to expectancy or sug- 
gestion, and follow these up with various cases of 
both spontaneous and experimental character. Those 
possibly due to expectancy or suggestion are selected 
from the Census of Hallucinations, made by the 
Society for Psychical Research and signed by the 
persons mentioned above. The first instance was 
indorsed by the subject of the experience, but writ- 
ten out by the collector of the Society. 

" This happened in 1870, when Mrs. E. was aged 



APPARITIONS 195 

forty. She was sitting in the drawing-room of the 
hotel overlooking a park, and was waiting for her 
husband to take her down to dinner. The drawing- 
room was open, and from her seat Mrs. E. had a view 
of part of the staircase and the intervening hall or 
passage. He delayed coming, so Mrs. E. ever and 
anon kept glancing towards the door and out into the 
hall beyond. At last one time she imagined she saw 
him turn a bend in the staircase and come slowly 
along the corridor. Keeping her eyes all the time 
on what she thought was her husband approaching 
her with a well-known smile, Mrs. E. rose and crossed 
the room till she stood, as she thought, opposite 
her husband, when the spectre vanished before her 
eyes. She was in good health at this time. In about 
half an hour afterwards, her husband, detained un- 
avoidably, did veritably come into the room." 

This instance is not coincidental, inasmuch as it 
does not show the corresponding external incident 
in the husband's mind or actions to make it have 
that character. It does illustrate, however, the fact 
that a living person can be represented in an ap- 
parition under circumstances of expectation, so that 
coincidental cases must be free from that influence 
to have a supernormal explanation. I am concerned 
at present mainly with the fact that phantasms of 
the Hving occur, regardless of the question whether 
they coincide with certain significant events at a dis- 
tance. I therefore give a few non-coincidental cases. 

" In the year 1883, I was studying music, and used 
to practise alone frequently in the evening. Towards 
the autumn of that year, on one occasion, I felt 



196 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

some one touch me, and on looking round I saw the 
figure of a gentleman whom I knew. He was dressed 
in black clothes, with the collar of his coat buttoned 
closely round his neck, showing no white collar. 
As I looked he faded away. This occurred on three 
different occasions. I was in perfect health at the 
time, and in no trouble or anxiety. I had not seen 
the gentleman for about two years before that occur- 
rence, and have no idea what he was doing at the 
time. The two first occasions were exactly alike." 

The next incident associates the apparition with a 
noise actually made by the person seen. 

" The most distinct hallucination that I remember 
was one which occurred to me one day in January, 
1891 (recorded soon after). I heard a friend 
(whose footstep I recognized) coming into this 
house, cross the hall outside the room in which I 
was standing, and up-stairs. At the same time 
that I distinctly heard her going up-stairs after 
having crossed the hall, I saw her in the room where 
I was. The room opens into the hall. I only saw 
her for a second or two; and she had not on her 
hat and jacket as she would naturally have had com- 
ing from a walk, but was dressed as she usually is 
in the house. The appearance vanished almost at 
once. I was startled by it, and when my friend 
came down I told her what I had seen, explaining 
that it must have been the sound of her step out- 
side which caused the appearance. I had also just 
come in from a walk, and was talking to other people 
in the sitting-room. I was not out of health nor 
in anxiety of any kind." 



•'^ 



APPARITIONS 197 

Another instance shows that investigation confirms 
the apparitional nature of the experience as dis- 
tinct from an illusion caused by the sight of some one 
present. 

" At my grandmother's house, Albemarle Co., Vir- 
ginia, at about 11 p. m., my cousin. Miss S., some- 
what older than I, and myself, had been convers- 
ing in the parlor. She left me. The house door 
opening into the parlor stood open, the night being 
warm, and the moonlight streamed in over the floor 
beside me as I sat, leaning on the sofa arm, my 
back to the entrance. The shadow of a human form 
fell on the moonlit floor. Half -turning my head I 
saw a tall woman dressed in white back of me. By 
the contour and the gleam of the plaits round her 
head I recognized my cousin, and deemed she had 
doff"ed her black dress to try a white one. I ad- 
dressed an ordinary remark to her. She did not 
reply and I turned right round upon her. Then 
she went out of the door down the entrance steps, 
and as she disappeared I wondered I had heard noth- 
ing of a step or the rustle of her dress. I sat and 
puzzled over this, though without taking fright, for 
a few minutes. I was unoccupied, ruminating 
quietly ; in robust health ; completely awake ; un- 
troubled ; age sixteen years about. It was, I felt 
convinced, though I did not see her face, my cousin. 
I am short-sighted, but fully believed I saw my cousin. 
She had shortly before left the room by the inner 
door. She lived there. I was familiar with the 
sight of her. I was alone for about half an hour. 
I then sought my cousin and found her in the other 



198 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

sitting-room with mj grandmother. I said, ' I 
thought you had changed your dress.' She said, 
' No, I have not.' I asked, ' Didn't you come to the 
house door just now.^^ ' She said, ' I've been with 
grandmother the last half -hour, — since I left you.' 
I then grew frightened and went up to the only other 
two inmates, at that hour, of the house. These two 
(females) denied that they had been down-stairs 
during the interval. The negro slaves had all gone 
to their (outside) quarters for the night." 

These suffice for non-coincidental apparitions 
which are, of course, attributed to ordinary hallu- 
cination, and they are narrated only to show that 
apparitions of living persons are possible, whether 
having a normal or a supernormal interpretation. 
If telepathy be a fact we shall have no difficulty in 
recognizing the possibility of apparitions represent- 
ing living people in the same way as mere hallucina- 
tions. I turn, therefore, to coincidental cases, what- 
ever the explanation of them. 

I shall refer first to one already quoted in the 
chapter on telepathy. It is the case in which a man's 
wife appeared to him in mauve dress, she being alive 
and well and at some distance from home (p. 107). 
This instance, the reader will remember, was well 
corroborated. The next instance is told by Mr. 
Myers in his Human Personality and Its Survival of 
Bodily Death, and is especially good in its evidential 
aspects. It is quoted from Phantasms of the Living. 

" In the autumn of 1877, while at Sholebrooke 
Lodge, Towcester, Northamptonshire, one night, at 
a little after ten o'clock, I remember I was about to 



APPARITIONS 199 

move a lamp in my room to a position where I usu- 
ally sat a little while before retiring to bed, when 
I suddenly saw a vision of my brother. It seemed 
to affect me like a mild shock of electricity. It sur- 
prised me so that I hesitated to carry out what I 
had intended, my eyes remaining fixed on the appari- 
tion of my brother. It gradually disappeared, leav- 
ing me wondering what it meant. I am positive no 
light or reflection deceived me. I had not been 
sleeping or rubbing my eyes. I was again in the 
act of moving the lamp when I heard taps along 
the window. I looked towards it — the window was 
on the ground floor — and heard a voice, my 
brother's, say, ' It's I, don't be frightened.' I let 
him in ; he remarked, ' How cool you are ! I thought 
I should have frightened you.' 

" The fact was, that the distinct vision of my 
brother had quite prepared me for his call. He 
found the window by accident, as he had never been 
to the house before ; to use his own words, ' I thought 
it was your window, and that I should find you.' 
He had unexpectedly left London to pay me a visit, 
and when near the house lost his way, and had found 
his way in the dark to the back of the place." 

The next instance represents a trivial circum- 
stance, and is an apparition only of the hands and 
a letter, but it is so well confirmed in its essential 
points that it must be quoted. It is also quoted by 
Mr, Myers from Phantasms of the Living. 

" [Mr. Gottschalk begins by describing a friend- 
ship which he formed with Mr. Courtenay Thorpe, 
at the rooms of Dr. Sylvian Mayer, on the evening 



SOO ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

of February 20th, 1885. On February 24th, being 
anxious to hear a particular recitation which Mr. 
Thorpe was shortly going to give, Mr. Gottschalk 
wrote to him, at Prince's Theatre, to ask what the 
hour of the recitation was to be.] In the evening I 
was going out to see some friends, when on the road 
there seemed suddenly to develop itself before me a 
disc of light, which appeared to be on a different 
plane to everything else in view. It was not possible 
for me to fix the distance at which it seemed to be 
from me. Examining the illumined space, I found 
that two hands were visible. They were engaged 
in drawing a letter from an envelope which I in- 
stinctively felt to be mine and, in consequence, 
thought immediately that the hands were those of 
Mr. Thorpe. I had not previously been thinking of 
him, but at the moment the conviction came to me 
with such intensity that it was irresistible. Not 
being in any way awestruck by the extraordinary 
nature and novelty of this incident, but in a per- 
fectly calm frame of mind, I examined the picture, 
and found that the hands were very white, and 
bared up to some distance above the wrist. Each 
forearm terminated in a ruffle; beyond that nothing 
was to be seen. The vision lasted about a minute. 
After its disappearance I determined to find out what 
connection it may have had with Mr. Thorpe's actual 
pursuit at the moment, and went to the nearest lamp- 
post and noted the time. 

" By the first post the next morning, I received 
an answer from Mr. Thorpe, which began in the 
following way : ' Tell me, pray tell me, why did I, 



APPARITIONS 201 

when I saw your letter in the rack at Prince's Thea- 
tre, know that it was from you? ' [We have seen 
this letter, which is dated ' Tuesday night ; ' and 
February 24th, 1885, fell on a Tuesday.] Mr. 
Thorpe had no expectation of receiving a letter from 
me, nor had he ever seen my writing. Even had 
he seen it, his knowledge of it would not affect the 
issue of the question, as he assured me that the im- 
pression arrived the moment he saw there was a 
letter under the ' T clip,' before any writing was 
visible. [Mr. Gottschalk explains that from the con- 
struction of the rack, which he examined, the address 
on the envelope would be invisible.] 

" On the evening of February 27th, by arrange- 
ment, I again met him at the rooms of Dr. Mayer, 
and there put questions to him with a view to eliciting 
some explanation. As near as possible, I give them 
as they were put at the time, and add the answers. 
It is necessary for me here to state that he and the 
Doctor were in complete ignorance of what had hap- 
pened to me. Having impressed upon him the neces- 
sity of answering in a categorical manner and with 
the greatest possible accuracy, I commenced : — 

" ' When did you get my Tuesday's letter .^^ ' 
* At 7 in the evening, when I arrived at the theatre.' 
' Then what happened ? ^ '1 read it, but, being very 
late, in such a hurry that when I had finished I was 
as ignorant of its contents as if I had never seen 
it.' ' Then.^^ ' ' I dressed, went on the stage, played 
my part, and came off.' ' What was the time then.? ' 
' About 20 minutes past 8.' ' What happened 
then.? ' ' I talked for a time with some of the com- 



'^*'*"*' 



g02 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

pany in my dressing-room.' ' For how long? ' 
'Twenty minutes.' 'What did you then do.'*' 
' They having left me my first thought was to find 
your letter. I looked everywhere for it, in vain. 
I turned out the pockets of my ordinary clothes, 
and searched among the many things that encum- 
bered my dressing-table. I was annoyed at not 
finding it immediately, especially as I was anxious 
to know what it was about. Strangely enough I dis- 
covered it eventually in the coat which I had just 
worn in the piece " School for Scandal." I imme- 
diately read it again, was delighted to receive it, 
and decided to answer at once.' ' Now be very exact. 
What was the time when you read it on the second 
occasion?' 'As nearly as I can say, 10 minutes 
to 9.' 

" Thereupon I drew from my pocket a little diary 
in which I had noted the time of my vision, and asked 
Dr. Mayer to read what was written under the date 
of 24th February. 

" ' Eight minutes to 9.' 

" [Mr. Gottschalk has kindly allowed us to in- 
spect his diary, which confirms all the dates given.] 

" Having established in this way, without assist- 
ance, the coincidence of the time between his actually 
opening the envelope and my seeing him do so, I 
was satisfied as to the principal part, and proceeded 
to analyze the incident in detail. The whiteness of 
the hands was accounted for by the fact that actors 
invariably whiten their hands when playing a part 
like the one Mr. Thorpe was engaged in — ' Snake ' 
in the ' School for Scandal.' The ruffles also formed 



APPARITIONS 203 

part of the dress in this piece. They were attached 
to the short sleeves of the shirt which Mr. Thorpe 
was actually wearing when he opened my letter. 

" This is the first hallucination I ever had. I 
have had one since of a similar nature, which I will 
recount separately." 

Dr. Mayer confirms the case so far as to say that 
he saw the note in diary and that it tallied almost 
exactly with Mr. Thorpe's statements. 

I quote one collective case well confirmed and re- 
ported in the Census of Hallucinations. The inci- 
dent is confirmed by the two sisters who had the 
experience and by the third sister who was the object 
of it. 

" I was playing the harmonium in the church of 

at about 4 p. m., August, 1889, when I saw my 

eldest sister walk up the church towards the chancel 
with a roll of papers under her arm. When I looked 
up again she had disappeared, and I thought she 
had just come in for a few minutes and gone out 
again ; but when I asked her afterwards what she 
wanted in the church, she was much surprised, and 
told me she had been in the rectory library all the 
afternoon, studying genealogical tables. 

" My eldest sister looked just as usual and wore 
her hat and jacket, as I and my younger sister both 
noticed. She walked rather briskly, looking straight 
before her. She assures us that she was sifting alone 
in the rectory library all the afternoon." 

The sister present and participant of the collective 
apparition writes as follows : — 

" My sisters and I were spending the day witK 



^04 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

our uncle at ; as he is rector his garden leads 

into the churchyard. In the course of the afternoon 
C. and I went into the church; she began to play 
the harmonium and I stood on a stone coffin beside 
her with my hand on her shoulder; my sister was 
playing a hymn and I was looking down at the book 
to read the words. C. casually looked up ; I did 
the same, and following the direction of her eyes 
saw K. walking to us up the church with — and 
this rather surprised me — a long bundle of papers 
in her hand. We made no remark and took no 
further notice of her movements, for when we go 

to we often just wander in to see the church. 

It was certainly K. herself; I could see her face 
quite well. C. and I finished our hymn and found 
she had gone. C. and I soon after went in to 
tea. At tea we were surprised to hear K. say, 
' I am sorry I did not see the church, but part of 
the afternoon I was looking at pedigrees in the 
study; before that I passed the church gate; I 
was going in, but turned back to the study instead,' 
or words to that effect. C. and I exchanged 
glances, but said nothing. However, next morning 
we attacked K. on the subject; she was much sur- 
prised, had certainly not been in the church, but 
had first been in the library studying the family 
pedigree, and then gone to the church gate and re- 
turned." 

K., the sister mentioned, gives the following ac- 
count of her doings : — 

" Upon the afternoon during which this curious 
incident happened, I wandered about my uncle's 



APPARITIONS 205 

garden for awhile, and half thought of going into 
the church, but changed my mind and did not. I 
went into the library, and, being interested in gene- 
alogy, studied my uncle's family pedigree until tea- 
time, when I remarked to my sisters that I had not 
been to the church all the afternoon, and they told 
me that they had seen me there. I felt no unusual 
sensations during the afternoon, and am much mys- 
tified by the incident." 

The coincidence lies in the fact that the sister, 
K., had intended to go into the church and had 
not. Otherwise we might place the case among the 
non-coincidental instances, or as an illusion or hallu- 
cination suggested by some sensory impression in the 
church. 

The Census records five other collective cases much 
more striking in their incidents than this one and less 
exposed to ordinary explanations. I simply mention 
this type as affecting the problem of chance. 

There seems to be but few instances in which 
spontaneous apparitions of the living are coinci- 
dental and suggestive of the supernormal, when the 
parties are in their normal waking state. I have 
quoted the majority of those that I can find having 
any special interest. There seems to be, however, 
a larger number of experimental instances, and I 
shall quote them at some length. 

Dr. Elliotson, in the Zoist, mentioned a case in 
which a friend was able by his will, telepathic sug- 
gestion, but not so called at the time, to produce 
in another phantasms of those he was thinking of. 
Dr. Charpignon reports a similar phenomenon, and 



206 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Dr. Dagonet, in the Annales Medico-P sychologiques, 
reports a case of this kind. The details of these, 
however, are not given, and Httle can be said of them 
except that they record coincidental phantasms whose 
explanation was not attempted. 

A Mr. Wesermann, in the Archiv fur den Thieri- 
schen Magnet'ismus, reports a series of experiments 
of his own in producing an apparition of himself at 
a distance. I quote the account, but shall not vouch 
for its trustworthiness. As the authors of the Fhan- 
tasms of the Living say : " To such a record, if it 
stood alone, we should attach very little importance, 
in default of any evidence as to the intellectual and 
moral trustworthiness of Wesermann." But as the 
phenomena are much like some of the instances 
quoted in reference to telepathy, they are no more 
incredible than these are, and besides they contain 
a few facts, which, if the sceptic of more striking 
facts will accept these, can be used against the spirit- 
istic hypothesis. 

" First Experiment at a Distance of Five Miles. 
I endeavored to acquaint my friend, the Hofkam- 
merath G. (whom I had not seen, with whom I had 
not spoken, and to whom I had not written, for 
thirteen years), with the fact of my intended visit, 
by presenting my form to him in his sleep, through 
the force of my will. When I went to him on the 
following evening, he evinced his astonishment at 
having seen me in a dream on the preceding night. 

" Second Experiment at a Distance of Three Miles. 
Madame W., in her sleep, was to hear a conversa- 
tion between me and two other persons, relating to 



APPARITIONS mt 

a certain secret; and when I visited her on the third 
day, she told me all that had been said, and showed 
her astonishment at this remarkable dream. 

'' Third Experiment at a Distance of One Mile, 
An aged person in G. was to see in a dream the fu- 
neral procession of mj deceased friend S., and when 
I visited her on the next day her first words were that 
she had in her sleep seen a funeral procession, and 
on inquiry I learned that I was the corpse. Here 
then was a slight error. 

" Fourth Experiment at a Distance of One-Eighth 
of a Mile. Herr Doctor B. desired a trial to convince 
him, whereupon I represented to him a nocturnal 
street-brawl. He saw it in a dream, to his great 
astonishment. 

" Fifth Experiment at a Distance of Nine Miles. 
The intention was that Lieutenant N. should see in 
a dream, at 11 o'clock p. m., a lady who had been 
five years dead, who was to incite him to a good 
action. Herr N., however, contrary to expectation, 
had not gone to sleep by 11 o'clock, but was con- 
versing with his friend S. on the French campaign. 
Suddenly the door of the chamber opens ; the lady, 
dressed in white, with black kerchief and bare head, 
walks in, salutes S. thrice with her hand in a friendly 
way, turns to N., nods to him, and then returns 
through the door. Both follow quickly, and call 
the sentinel at the entrance; but all had vanished, 
and nothing was to be found. Some months after- 
ward, Herr S. informed me by letter that the cham- 
ber door used to creak when opened, but did not 
do so when the lady opened it — whence it is to be 



208 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

inferred that the opening of the door was only a 
dream-picture, like all the rest of the apparition." 

This last instance, if we can accept it as reported, 
affords a pretty suggestion of telepathic transmis- 
sion of images which might otherwise be taken for 
phantasms of the dead. That is, it is a case in which 
we do not suppose that the agent is what appears to 
be such. The next case, which is accepted by Mr. 
Gurney, is much like those which I have quoted and 
has corroboration by the Rev. Stainton Moses. 

" One evening early last year, I resolved to try to 
appear to Z, at some miles distance. I did not inform 
him beforehand of the intended experiment; but re- 
tired to rest shortly before midnight with thoughts 
intently fixed on Z, with whose room and surround- 
ings, however, I was quite acquainted. I soon fell 
asleep, and awoke next morning unconscious of any- 
thing having taken place. On seeing Z a few days 
afterward, I inquired, ' Did anything happen at 
your rooms on Saturday night? ' ' Yes,' he replied, 
' a great deal happened. I had been sitting over 
the fire with M., smoking and chatting. About 12.30 
he rose to leave, and I let him out myself. I re- 
turned to the fire to finish my pipe, when I saw you 
sitting in the chair just vacated by him. I looked 
intently at you, and then took up a newspaper to 
assure myself I was not dreaming, but on laying it 
down I saw you still there. While I gazed without 
speaking, you faded away. Though I imagined 
you must be fast asleep in bed at that hour, yet you 
appeared dressed in your ordinary garments, such as 
you usually wear every day.' ' Then my experiment 



- m II w f.m m 



APPARITIONS 209 

seems to have succeeded,' said I. ' The next time 
I come, ask me what I want, as I had fixed my mind 
on certain questions I intended to ask you, but I 
was probably waiting for an invitation to speak.' 

" A few weeks later the experiment was repeated 
with equal success, I, as before, not informing Z 
when it was made. On this occasion he not only 
questioned me on the subject which was at that time 
under very warm discussion between us, but detained 
me by the exercise of his will some time after I had 
intimated a desire to leave. This fact, when it came 
to be communicated to me, seemed to account for the 
violent and somewhat peculiar headache which marked 
the morning following the experiment; at least I 
remarked at the time that there was no apparent 
cause for the headache; and, as on the former occa- 
sion, no recollection remained of the event, or seem- 
ing event, of the preceding night." 

There are three instances of experiment by the 
same agent with different percipients. They have 
the advantage of independent testimony at both ends 
of the line and so have unusual confirmation. 

" On a certain Sunday evening in November, 1881, 
having been reading of the great power which the 
human will is capable of exercising, I determined 
with the whole force of my being that I would be 
present in spirit in the front bedroom on the second 
floor of a house situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Ken- 
sington, in which room slept two ladies of my ac- 
quaintance, viz., Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., 
aged respectively twenty-five and eleven years. I 
was living at this time at 23 Kildare Gardens, a dis- 



^10 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

tance of about three miles from Hogarth Road, and 
I had not mentioned in any way my intention of 
trying this experiment to either of the above ladies, 
for the simple reason that it was only on retiring 
to rest upon this Sunday night that I made up my 
mind to do so. The time at which I determined I 
would be there was 1 o'clock in the morning, and I 
also had a strong intention of making my presence 
perceptible. 

" On the following Thursday I went to see the 
ladies in question, and, in the course of conversation 
(without any allusion to the subject on my part), 
the elder one told me, that, on the previous Sunday 
night, she had been much terrified by perceiving me 
standing by her bedside, and that she screamed when 
the apparition advanced towards her, and awoke her 
little sister, who saw me also. 

" I asked her if she was awake at the time, and 
she replied most decidedly in the affirmative, and 
upon my inquiring the time of the occurrence, she 
replied, about 1 o'clock in the morning. 

" This lady, at my request, wrote down a state- 
ment of the event and signed it. 

" This was the first occasion upon which I tried 
an experiment of this kind, and its complete success 
startled me very much." 

The percipient, Miss L. S. Verity, tells her story 
of the experience in the following language : — 

" On a certain Sunday evening, about twelve 
months since, at our house in Hogarth Road, Ken- 
sington, I distinctly saw Mr. B. in my room, about 
1 o'clock. I was perfectly awake and was much ter- 



TjjMa'Jc;y.t» ' .>,;,«»j num^ 



APPARITIONS m 

rified. I awoke my sister by screaming, and she 
saw the apparition herself. Three days after, when 
I saw Mr. B., I told him what had happened ; but it 
was some time before I could recover from the shock 
I had received, and the remembrance is too vivid 
to be ever erased from my memory." 

The sister mentioned in this account also writes her 
confirmation of the event, and states that she, too, 
saw the apparition. It will be noticed also that the 
case is a collective one, and very much diminishes 
the probability of chance coincidence. 

The next instance by the same agent is very inter- 
esting, as it not only has confirmation, but also has 
psychological features of some interest. 

" On Friday, December 1st, 1882 (recorded ten 
days afterward), at 9.30 p. m., I went into a room 
alone and sat by the fireside, and endeavored so 
strongly to fix my mind upon the interior of a house 
at Kew {viz., Clarence Road), in which resided Miss 
V. and her two sisters, that I seemed to be actually 
in the house. During this experiment I must have 
fallen into a mesmeric sleep, for although I was 
conscious I could not move my limbs. I did not 
seem to have lost the power of moving them, but 
I could not make the effort to do so, and my hands, 
which lay loosely on my knees, about six inches apart, 
felt involuntarily drawn together and seemed to meet, 
although I was conscious that they did not move. 

" At 10 p. M. I regained my normal state by an 
effort of will, and then took a pencil and wrote down 
on a sheet of note-paper the foregoing statements. 

" When I went to bed on this same night, I deter- 



212 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

mined that I would be in the front bedroom of the 
above-mentioned house at 12 p. m., and remain there 
until I had made my spiritual presence perceptible 
to the inmates of that room. 

" On the next day, Saturday, I went to Kew to 
spend the evening, and met there a married sister 
of Miss V. (viz., Mrs. L.). This lady I had only 
met once before, and then it was at a ball two years 
previous to the above date. We were both in fancy 
dress at the time, and as we did not exchange more 
than half a dozen words, this lady would naturally 
have lost any vivid recollection of my appearance, 
even if she had remarked it. 

" In the course of conversation (although I did 
not think for a moment of asking her any questions 
on such a subject), she told me that on the previous 
night she had seen me distinctly upon two occasions. 
She had spent the night at Clarence Road, and had 
slept in the front bedroom. At about half -past 9 
she had seen me in the passage, going from one 
bedroom to another, and at 12 p. m., when she was 
wide awake, she had seen me enter the bedroom and 
walk round to where she was sleeping, and take her 
hair (which is very long) into my hand. She also 
told me that the apparition took hold of her hand 
and gazed intently into it, whereupon she spoke, 
saying, ' You need not look at the lines, for I have 
never had any trouble.' She then awoke her sister. 
Miss v., who was sleeping with her, and told her 
about it. After hearing this account, I took the 
statement which I had written down on the previous 
evening, from my pocket, and showed it to some of 



APPARITIONS S13 

the persons present, who were much astonished al- 
though incredulous." 

Mrs. L. was asked to write out an account of her 
experience, and she did so at the time. It represents 
an identical story with the one quoted, and her sis- 
ter. Miss L. S. Verity, who was sleeping with Mrs. 
L. at the time and who was awakened, as stated, 
corroborates the experience of Mrs. L. 

Another experiment of the same kind by Mr. B. 
was previously promised to Mr. Gumey, who had 
heard of those quoted. On March 22d, Mr. B. 
wrote to Mr. Gurney that he was going to make 
his presence visible that night at a certain address 
at 12 p. M., and to let Mr. Gumey know the results 
later. He was to produce an apparition of himself 
to Miss L. S. Verity. 

Miss Verity's account of what her experience that 
night was is as follows, not having been informed 
of what Mr. B. intended to do. 

" On Saturday night, March 22d, 1884, at about 
midnight, I had a distinct impression that Mr. S. 
H. B. was present in my room, and I distinctly saw 
him whilst I was widely awake. He came towards 
me and stroked my hair. I voluntarily gave him 
this information, when he called to see me on Wednes- 
day, April 2d, telling him the time and the circum- 
stances of the apparition, without any suggestion 
on his part. The appearance in my room was most 
vivid, and quite unmistakable." 

In his account of it Mr. B. says that Miss Verity's 
" nerves had been much shaken, and she had been 
obliged to send for a doctor in the morning." Mr. 



214 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

B. made no note of having intended to " stroke " 
the lady's hair, but says that he distinctly remembers 
this intention. 

We have two more experimental cases from good 
authorities. One of them represents a deferral of 
the apparition, so that it does not coincide exactly 
with the time of its intentional appearance. The 
first incident comes into requisition very well at this 
point, because it was an experiment prompted by 
reading the very accounts which I have just narrated. 
The experiment and the account were made by the 
Rev. Clarence Godfrey, and corroborated by the per- 
cipient. 

'' I was so impressed by the account on p. 105 
[Vol. I. Phantasms of the Living'] that I determined 
to put the matter to an experiment. 

"Returning at 10.45 (on November 15th, 1886), 
I determined to appear, if possible, to a friend, and 
accordingly I set myself to work with all the voli- 
tional and determinative energy which I possess, to 
stand at the foot of her bed. I need not say that I 
never dropped the slightest hint beforehand as to 
my intention, such as could mar the experiment, nor 
had I mentioned the subj ect to her. As the ' agent ' 
I may describe my own experiences. 

" Undoubtedly the imaginative faculty was 
brought extensively into play, as well as the voli- 
tional, for I endeavored to translate myself, spiritu- 
ally, into her room, and to attract her attention, as 
it were, while standing there. My effort was sus- 
tained for perhaps eight minutes, after which I felt 
tired and was soon asleep. 



ririiiiiMl^ 



APPARITIONS 215 

" The next thing I was conscious of was meeting 
the lady next morning (i. e., in a dream, I suppose?) 
and asking her at once if she had seen me last night. 
The reply came, 'Yes.' 'Plow?' I inquired. Then 
in words strangely clear and low, like a well-audible 
whisper, came the answer, ' I was sitting beside you.' 
These words, so clear, awoke me instantly, and I 
felt I must have been dreaming; but on reflection 
I remembered what I had been ' willing ' before I 
fell asleep, and it struck me, ' This must be a re-flex 
action from the percipient.' My watch showed 
3.40 A. M. The following is what I wrote immedi- 
ately in pencil, standing in my night-dress : ' As 
I reflected upon those clear words, they struck me 
as being quite intuitive. I mean subjective, and to 
have proceeded from within, as my own conviction, 
rather than a communication from any one else. 
And yet I can't remember her face at all, as one can 
after a vivid dream.' 

" But the words were uttered in a clear, quick 
tone, which was most remarkable, and awoke me at 
once. 

" My friend in the note with which she sent me 
the enclosed account of her own experience, says : 
' Remember the man put all the lamps out soon after 
I came up-stairs, and that is only done about a 
quarter to four.' " 

On the next day, the 16th of November, Mr. God- 
frey received from the percipient, evidently written 
without query from him, a letter telling her expe- 
rience. I quote the account. 

" Yesterday — viz., the morning of November 



^16 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

16th, 1886 — about half -past three o'clock, I woke 
up with a start and an idea that some one had come 
into the room. I heard a curious sound, but fancied 
it might be the birds in the ivy outside. Next I 
experienced a strange, restless longing to leave the 
room and go down-stairs. This feeling became so 
overpowering that at last I rose and lit a candle, 
and went down, thinking if I could get some soda- 
water it might have a quieting effect. On returning 
to my room I saw Mr. Godfrey standing under the 
large window on the staircase. He was dressed in 
his usual style, and with an expression on his face 
that I have noticed when he has been looking very 
earnestly at anything. He stood there, and I held 
up the candle and gazed at him for three or four 
seconds in utter amazement, and then, as I passed 
up the staircase, he disappeared. The impression 
left on my mind was so vivid that I fully intended 
waking a friend who occupied the same room as my- 
self, but remembering that I should only be laughed 
at as romantic and imaginative, refrained from doing 
so. 

" I was not frightened at the appearance of Mr. 
Godfrey, but felt much excited, and could not sleep 
afterwards." 

There is apparently a mistake by Mr. Podmore 
in his report of the case, since the contents of the 
letter by the percipient indicates that her letter was 
written on the 17th. The apparent difficulty is ex- 
plained by the fact that Mr. Godfrey's account on 
the 16th was an oral one. In every other respect the 



-•tmMpMrtiiMlMginnHMMMMMM^^ 



APPARITIONS ^17 

account is consistent. The difficulty is in the man- 
ner of writing the record. 

All that is noticeably coincidental in this incident 
is the apparition. The other circumstances are not 
reflected in it. It is probable that the impression 
was produced just before Mr. Godfrey was dream- 
ing, but it is interesting to remark that the figure 
was not that which Mr. Godfrey tried to transmit. 
He was to stand at the foot of her bed, but he was 
seen, as indicated, " under the large window on the 
staircase.^^ This is possibly an evidence that the 
telepathic impression, if such it be, occurred about 
the time of the dream, which was some hours later 
than the conscious effort to impress himself. Some 
may think it a case of deferred percipience, but that 
judgment will depend upon evidence that the phan- 
tasm was identical with that intended. I doubt if 
it is a case of deferred percipience. Apparently no 
effect took place until about the time of the dream. 
But this is anticipating explanation, and I have no 
desire to suppose, at present, anything more definite 
than a coincidence and which would awaken the sus- 
picion that the phenomenon is not chance, but has 
some causal connection not usual. 

This terminates the experimental instances of ap- 
paritions representing the living. There is another 
type which has its interest in the fact that they 
coincide with the illness of the person whose appari- 
tion is seen by another. This type represents spon- 
taneous cases, and is placed after the experimental 
instances because they lie nearer in character to the 
apparitions of the dying. Their interest and signif- 



218 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

icance will appear in the sequel. I shall give a few 
instances of them. 

There is a complicated instance which represents 
a transitional type from the spontaneous to the ex- 
perimental apparition of the dead. It is complicated 
with planchette writing and table tipping and for 
that reason has a deep interest. I give it as show- 
ing a remarkable number of coincidences to which 
we should attach little interest but for the associated 
apparition. It is also associated with expectancy 
and suggestion on the side of the percipient. 

" On November S7th, 1887, while staying near 
Melbourne, Australia, Miss B. made the acquaintance 
of a lady, Miss L. T., who had the capacity of plan- 
chette writing. A communication written through 
her, and signed by the name of a well-known author- 
ess, ' M. N.,' stated that ' before another year rolled 
away, some gift of spiritual power would come to ' 
Miss B. Miss B. afterward went to Otago, and on 
the evening of December 31st, 1887, was persuaded 
by the friends with whom she was staying to try 
experiments in table tilting. Miss B., remembering 
the prediction made through Miss T.'s planchette, 
wished to inquire further about it, and the tilts 
indicating that ' M. N.' was present, she asked 
when the gift would come to her and what form 
it would take. The tilts replied that ' M. N.' would 
be able to make herself visible to Miss B. the same 
night. This occurred at 10 p. m. Miss B. states that 
she was not at all impressed by the incident, and went 
to bed and to sleep without thinking about it. In the 
middle of the night, she awoke suddenly and com- 



APPARITIONS 219 

pletelj, with a curious feeling of what she describes 
as ' inward shivering ; ' the room was quite dark, 
and she saw a tall white female figure slowly rising 
between the wall and her bed with its arms stretch- 
ing out towards her. She turned away from it and 
saw it again after turning back; it then seemed to 
disappear slowly into the floor. After a few min- 
utes, she looked at her watch and found it was 
2.25 A. M. In the morning she told her host, who 
confirms her account. 

" Six weeks later, Miss B. heard from Miss L. T. 
that she had been planchette writing with a friend 
at Melbourne on the evening of December 31st, 1887. 
' M. N.' had communicated, but at 12.30 had said 
that she ' must go to ' Miss B. This time at Mel- 
bourne corresponds to about 2.15 a. m. at Otago, 
the time when Miss B. saw the apparition. 

" Miss L. T. writes on July 7th, 1889, giving an 
account of her planchette writing on the evening 
in question, and confirming Miss B.'s statements." 

The next instance I shall abbreviate. It is quoted 
by Mr. Myers from Phantasms of the Living. A 
man was sitting in his ofiice and happened to look 
toward the window, and saw an apparition of his 
wife " in a reclining position, with her eyes closed 
and the face quite white and bloodless, as if she 
were dead." When he got home in the evening he 
found that his wife had at that very time had a 
fainting fit, caused by a hurt to her child. Another 
gentleman reports an experience almost identical with 
this one, involving an apparition of his wife coincid- 
ing with a swoon in which she fell at the time. 



220 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

I shall abbreviate another well-supported case. 
The details showing the proof of it would occupy 
too much space. A wife had left her husband a few 
days before in perfect health. Five days later she 
had an apparition of him, and on the next day re- 
ceived a telegram saying that he was dangerously 
ill. He died five days later. The case is taken 
from the Census of Hallucinations, as are several 
others to follow. 

" I saw the figure of my cousin (a nurse in Dub- 
lin) coming up-stairs, dressed in grey. I was in 
Tasmania, and the time that I saw her was between 
6 and 7 P. M. on April 21st, 1888." 

Inquiry showed that the narrator, Miss Hervey, 
had noted her experience in a diary and that she 
did not know that her cousin was ill. This cousin 
died on April 22d, 1888, at 4.30 p. m. The nurses 
in the hospital in which she died wore grey, a fact 
unknown also to Miss Hervey. 

In the next instance death does not follow the ap- 
parition of the agent. It is uncorroborated. 

" My younger brother was in Australia, and had 
not written to his family for some four or five months, 
from which my mother had concluded he must be 
dead. I was sitting with her and my sister in our 
dining-room one morning, about 11 o'clock, engaged 
with my sister in writing a German exercise. Being 
at a loss for the right declension, I looked up, re- 
peating the declension, when I saw my brother stand- 
ing on the lawn in front of the window apparently 
looking at us. I jumped up, saying to my mother, 
' Don't be frightened, mother, but there is T. come 



LlN 



APPARITIONS 221 

back all right.' (My mother had heart disease, and 
I feared the sudden shock. ) ' Where ? ' said my 
mother and sister, ' I don't see him.' ' He is there,' 
I answered, ' for I saw him ; he is gone to the front 
door,' and we all ran to the door. My father, who 
was in the library, heard the commotion, and opened 
the door to ask the cause. I had by this time opened 
the front door, and not seeing my brother, I thought 
he was hiding for fun among the shrubs, so I called 
out, ' Come, T., come in, do not play the fool or 
you will kill dear mother.' No one answered, and 
then my mother exclaimed, ' Oh, you did not see 
him really, he is dead, I know he is dead.' I was 
mystified, but it did not seem to me the right solu- 
tion of the mystery. I could not think he was dead, 
he looked so honestly alive. To tell the truth, I 
believed for some time that he was in the garden. 
However, he was not, nor was he dead. About a 
year afterwards he returned home, and when re- 
counting his troubles, he told us that he had been 
very ill, and that while he was delirious he had con- 
stantly requested his comrades to lay him under 
the great cedar-tree on his father's lawn, and turn- 
ing to my father he went on, ' Yes, father, and do 
you know I seemed to see the dear old place as I 
do now.' ' When was that ? ' said my father. He 
gave the date, and my mother, who had written it 
down, looked and said, ' Why, that was the very 
time when your sister declared she saw you on the 
lawn.' ' Yes,' said my father, ' and your mother 
at once killed you,' and there was a good laugh 
at my expense. 



2S2 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" I have often thought over it, but have never 
been able to account for it. This brother was not 
a particular favorite. Had it been my sister, I 
could have supposed that, as she was rarely absent 
from my mind, I might have conjured up her form 
in my imagination. Then I would have bitten my 
tongue out rather than have startled my mother. 
But I never doubted for a moment that my brother 
was there. I was about twenty-five years of age, 
and had no theory as to ghosts or spirits in general. 
I was at that time far too much occupied with the 
cares and anxieties of the family to have time to 
dwell on such fancies, and was also too matter-of- 
fact to think much about such phenomena. I remem- 
ber at the time, that I saw my brother dressed as he 
usually was when he came home from London, not 
as he was when he left home, nor as he could be in 
Australia, nor as I had ever seen him when walk- 
ing in the garden. He had on a tall hat and a 
black cloth suit, neither of which he had taken with 
him." 

It is not necessary to suppose this instance any- 
thing more than a subjective hallucination in order 
to admit its coincidental character. I am not con- 
cerned with its explanation, whether by chance or 
otherwise, but with the circumstances which tend to 
make the fact coincidental and coincidental with ill- 
ness. 

There are two instances of striking interest in that 
they have a sort of corroboration in the testimony 
of two persons. I shall quote them at length. The 
first narrative is by a Mrs. Walsh, of the Priory, 



APPARITIONS 223 

Lincoln, and the second by a Mr. T. J. Hoare, who 
tells an account of his various experiences. Mrs. 
Walsh says : 

" The gentleman who teaches music in my house 
tells me that if anything sad or terrible happens to 
any one he loves, he always has an intimation of it. 
I am very fond of him, and I know he looks on me 
as a very true old friend, and one of my sons, now 
in India, is the dearest friend he has. 

" I went out one morning about 9 o'clock, carry- 
ing books for the library, and being very busy, took 
the short way to town. On some flags in a very 
steep part of the road, some boys had made a slide. 
Both my feet flew away at the same moment that the 
back of my head resounded on the flags. A police- 
man picked me up, saw I was hurt, and rang at 
the Nurses' Home close by, to get me looked to. My 
head was cut, and while they were washing the 
blood away, I was worrying myself that I should 
be ill, and how I should manage my school till the 
end of the term. I told no one in my house but my 
daughter, and no one but the policeman had seen me 
fall. I asked my daughter to tell no one. I had 
a miserable nervous feeling, but I pretended to her 
it was nothing. The next morning after a sleep- 
less night, I could not get up. It was my habit to 
sit in the drawing-room while the music lessons were 

given, so my daughter went in to tell Mr. that 

I had had a bad night, and was not yet up. He 
said, ' I had a wretched night, too, and all through 
a most vivid dream.' 'What was it?' she asked. 
' I dreamed I was walking by the Nurses' Home, and 



^24 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

while my head was being bathed I was worrying 
myself how I should manage my lessons till the end 
of the term, and the worrying feeling would not 
go.' » 

The account of Mr. Hoare is as follows: 

" I shall be very pleased to relate the account of 
a dream, as described by Mrs. Walsh most accurately, 
which took place on a Tuesday evening early in 
November, 1882. The dream consisted of this: I 
supposed I was going down the Grey stone Stairs, 
when I had a fall at the first flight, was picked up, 
and helped by a policeman to the Nurses' Institute, 
about twenty yards from the imaginary fall, being 
there attended by a nurse. I was much perplexed 
as to how I should manage to finish my work during 
the term. This was followed the next morning by 
a severe headache in the region of the imaginary 
blow. 

" On seeing Miss Walsh the following morning, 
I was told by her that Mrs. Walsh was unwell, but 
not the cause. I replied I, too, felt unwell, and ac- 
counted for it through the dream. Mrs. Walsh 
related to me the same evening her own adventure, 
which in every detail exactly coincided with my 
dream as happening to myself. I in no way knew of 
Mrs. Walsh's mishap till the evening after, when 
told by herself. 

" In another instance, whilst staying in Devon- 
shire, I received an impression, or felt a conviction, 
that something had happened to Mrs. Walsh. I 
think I wanted to write, so confident was I of some- 
thing having taken place, but desisted because I had 



APPARITIONS 225 

left Lincoln through an outbreak of smallpox in 
the house next my rooms, only the previous week, 
so was unwilling to respond. On my return here, 
I found out that both my day (i. e., the day of the 
impression) and the accident — a fall — were true. 

" In many other instances have I received similar 
experiences, and so confident have I been always of 
their accuracy that I have written to the persons 
and places, and always received confirmation of my 
impressions. I have had, I think, ten or twelve im- 
pressions. They are quite unlike fits of low spirits 
and indigestion, and I can easily distinguish them 
from such, as in every case I have been most con- 
scious of outside action." 

I shall add one more instance of this type, because 
it is so well substantiated, the original letters of 
both parties having been preserved. It is reported 
in the Census of Hallucinations. 

On Wednesday, August 22d, 1888, 9 p. m., Miss 
Clark writes to Miss Maughan: 

" Were you crying on Sunday night near 11 
o'clock? because I distinctly heard some one cry- 
ing, and supposed it was H — in the next room, but 
she wasn't there at all. Then I thought it might 
be you." 

On Thursday continuing the same letter, which was 
not posted until this day, the 23d, Miss Clark 
writes : 

" Thank you very much for your letter just 
come. I am so sorry your face is sore; did it make 
you cry on Sunday night? " 

Miss Maughan's letter, which brought out this 



226 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

postscript note, was dated Tuesday evening, August 
21st, and received August 23d, and was as follows; 

" On Sunday we went to see Wroxam Broad. We 
had an immense amount of walking to do altogether, 
and I think I got a little cold in my face in the 
morning, and all night I suffered with it, and my 
face is swelled still." 

On receipt of Miss Clark's query which was on 
August 26th, Miss Maughan writes a postscript 
to a letter begun before the receipt of Miss Clark's. 

" I am putting poultices on my gums. I have 
never had such a huge swelling before, and it wonH 
go down. It is so horribly uncomfortable .... 

" Saturday afternoon. — Thanks for letter. Yes, 
I was crying on Sunday night — only on account of 
pain. It was awful, but I only cried quietly, as 
Edith was asleep." 

There is a large number of this type of coinci- 
dence, but such examples as I have referred to illus- 
trate the class sufficiently for the purpose here, 
which is to indicate a phenomenon bordering on the 
next type to be considered. I quoted two or three 
instances in which the person represented in the 
phantasm soon afterward died, and others were in 
no way related to approximate death, but both are 
coincident with illness or mishap, some abnormal 
condition of the person seen either in sleep or in 
the waking state, though, as in the instance next to 
the last, the identity of the person really or appar- 
ently acting as agent and the appearance is appar- 
ently an experience of the percipient. This charac- 
teristic is a most important one for comparison 



APPARITIONS S27 

with alleged mediumistic communications with the 
dead. 

The next type, still belonging to apparitions of 
the living in the classification of psychic researchers 
generally, is that of apparitions supposed to coin- 
cide with the death of the person assumed to be the 
agent in the communication of the influence. What 
place they are to have in explanation will be examined 
again. The point to be made at present is that they 
are the next step in a graduated series of phenomena. 

For my first instances I shall merely remind the 
reader of those which I narrated in Science and a 
Future Life, and which I shall not repeat here. They 
have such respectable sources that the ordinary con- 
firmation is not so imperative. I refer to the ap- 
paritions, coincident with the death of a friend, and 
seen by Lord Brougham, John Addington Symonds, 
Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Keulemans, and the pre- 
monitory case of Mr. G. J. Romanes. I also there 
mentioned the case which Dr. Weir Mitchell reports 
of his father's knowledge in the life of a patient. 
Dr. Minot J. Savage is also quoted for one within 
his knowledge. These suggest the necessity of listen- 
ing to coincidental narratives purporting to repre- 
sent apparitions coincident with the death of the 
person seen. 

2. Apparitions of the Dying 

Apparitions coincident with illness lead up to the 
type that is coincident with death. I have quoted 
mostly those which coincide only with illness and not 
such as coincided with a fatal illness. But there are 



228 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

many apparitions associated with sickness that ends 
in death, and perhaps they are more numerous than 
the type quoted. But I wished to lay proper stress 
upon the type, which is apparently not in any way 
connected with phenomena suggesting a spiritistic 
theory, which depends for its proof upon such phe- 
nomena as indicate a discamate existence, or the 
possibility of an independent existence for con- 
sciousness. No claim for spiritism, as that is usually 
understood, can be made for apparitions that are 
associated only with illness. But such phenomena 
can be used to establish a causal nexus against chance, 
whatever the ultimate explanation, and in any scien- 
tific view of the facts it is necessary to articulate 
the more puzzling phenomena with those which give 
explanation less perplexity. Assuming telepathy as 
experimentally established it would seem most nat- 
ural to apply that hypothesis to as many of the facts 
as the circumstances will permit. At the same time 
it is as well also to know that the limits of such 
phenomena are not determined by the mere fact of 
illness, but extend to the point of the final exit of 
consciousness, and here we find a most numerous 
class of apparitions. 

I shall not quote as extensively from this type, 
though I shall make clear some idea of their com- 
parative frequency. A few instances will suffice to 
illustrate their character. The first instance is one 
that occurred in the waking state, and is well sup- 
ported. 

" N. J. S. and F. L. were employed together in 
an office, were brought into intimate relations with 



APPARITIONS 229 

one another, which lasted for about eight years, 
and held one another in very great regard and es- 
teem. On Monday, March 19th, 1883, F. L., in 
coming to the office, complained of having suffered 
from indigestion; he went to a chemist, who told 
him that his liver was a little out of order, and gave 
him some medicine. He did not seem much better 
on Thursday. On Saturday he was absent, and 
N. J. S. has since heard he was examined by a medi- 
cal man, who thought he wanted a day or two of 
rest, but expressed no opinion that anything was 
serious. 

" On Saturday evening, March 24th, N. J. S., who 
had a headache, was sitting at home. He said to 
his wife that he was what he had not been for months, 
rather too warm ; after making the remark he leaned 
back on the couch, and the next minute saw his 
friend, F. L., standing before him, dressed in his 
usual manner. N. J. S. noticed the details of his 
dress, that is, his hat with a black band, his overcoat 
unbuttoned, and a stick in his hand ; he looked with 
a fixed regard at N. J. S., and then passed away. 
N. J. S. quoted to himself from Job, ' And lo, a 
spirit passed before me, and the hair of my fliesh 
stood up.' At that moment an icy chill passed 
through him, and his hair bristled. He then turned 
to his wife and asked her the time; she said, 
' Twelve minutes to 9.' He then said, ' The reason 
I asked you is that F. L. is dead. I have just seen 
him.' She tried to persuade him it was a fancy, 
but he most positively assured her that no argument 
was of avail to alter his opinion. 



230 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" The next day, Sunday, about 3 p. m., A. L., 
brother of F. L., came to the house of N. J. S., 
who let him in. A. L. said, ' I suppose you know 
what I have come to tell you? ' N. J. S. replied, 
' Yes, your brother is dead.' A. L. said, ' I thought 
you would know it.' N. J. S. replied, 'Why.^' 
A. L. said, ' Because you were in such sympathy 
with one another.' N. J. S. afterward ascertained 
that A. L. called on Saturday to see his brother, 
and on leaving noticed the clock on the stairs was 
twenty-five minutes to 9 p. m. F. L.'s sister, on go- 
ing to him at 9 p. m., found him dead from rupture 
of the aorta." 

The narrator of this experience is N. J. S. him- 
self, and it is corroborated by his wife and the 
brother of the deceased as a witness of the coinci- 
dence. 

An interesting case of waking apparition is that 
of a workman in a cemetery. He had often seen 
a certain lady at the tomb of her husband, and one 
evening saw her there and went up to find her and 
to speak to her, after noticing that she had disap- 
peared in an unaccountable manner. He could not 
find any traces of her, and told his wife that eve- 
ning that he had seen her, but learned the next day 
that she had died about the time he saw her appari- 
tion. The next instance has an independent witness. 
It is a dream. 

" On the morning of February 7th, 1855, at 
Mount Pleasant Square, Dublin, where I lived, I 
awakened from a troubled sleep and dream, exclaim- 
ing, ' John is dead.' My husband said, ' Go to 



APPARITIONS 23U 

sleep, you are dreaming.' I did sleep, and again 
awoke repeating the same words, and asking him 
to look at the watch and tell me what o'clock it was 
then; he did so, and said it was 2 o'clock. I was 
much impressed by this dream, and next day went 
to the city to inquire at the house of business ; Mr. 
John C. being at Dundrum for the previous month. 
He was not a relative, but a very intimate friend. 
When I got to the house I saw the place closed up, 
and the man who answered the door told me the 
reason. ' Oh ! ma'am, Mr. John C. is dead.' ' When 
did he die ? ' I said. ' At 2 this morning,' he said. 
I was so much shocked, he had to assist me to the 
waiting-room to give me some water. I had not 
heard of Mr. C.'s illness, and was speaking to him 
a fortnight previously, when he was complaining 
of a slight cold, and expected the change of Dun- 
drum would benefit him, so that he could return to 
town immediately. I never saw nor heard of him 
after, until I dreamt the foregoing." 

The husband confirms the experience, and inquiry 
seems to indicate that Mrs. Lincoln, the narrator, 
is not in the habit of talking in her sleep, but has 
had several dreams which she regarded as premoni- 
tory. Another instance involves certain interesting 
details and evidential incidents. 

" On the morning of September 25th, quite early, 
I awoke from a dream to find my sister holding me, 
and much alarmed. I had screamed out, struggled, 
crying out, ' Is he really dead.^^ ' When I fully 
awoke I felt a burning sensation in my head. I 



232 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

could not speak for a moment or two ; I knew my 
sister was there, but I neither felt nor saw her. 

" In about a minute, during which she said my eyes 
were staring beyond her, I ceased struggling, cried 
out, ' Harry's dead, they have shot him,' and 
fainted. When I recovered, I found my sister had 
been sent away, and an aunt who had always looked 
after me was sitting by my bed. In order to soothe 
my excitement she allowed me to tell her my dream, 
trying all the time to persuade me to regard it as 
a natural consequence of my anxiety. When in the 
narration I said he was riding with another officer, 
and mounted soldiers behind them, she exclaimed, 
' My dear, that shows you it was only a dream, for 
you know dear Harry is in an infantry, not a cav- 
alry, regiment.' Nothing, however, shook my feel- 
ings that I had seen a reality ; and she was so much 
struck by my persistence, that she privately made 
notes of the date, and of the incidents, even to the 
minutest details of my dream, and then for a few 
days the matter dropped, but I felt the truth was 
coming nearer and nearer to all. In a short time 
the news came in the papers — shot down on the 
morning of the 25th when on his way to Lucknow. 
A few days later came one of his missing letters, 
telling how his own regiment had mutinied, and that 
he had been transferred to a command in the 12th 
Irregular Cavalry, bound to join Havelock's force 
in the relief of Lucknow." 

There is a discrepancy between the date mentioned 
by the narrator and that given in the East India 
Register, which places the death on September 26th. 



APPARITIONS 233 

This might equally be a mistake, as the aunt is cer- 
tain she never destroyed her notes, though not being 
able to put her hands on them, and refuses to look 
them up because she thinks attention to such things 
is ridiculous. The coincidence, then, is in the de- 
tails of the experience more distinctly and possibly 
also in the dates. 

In another case a gentleman was at the theatre 
in Toronto, Canada, and saw an apparition of his 
brother in the pit. He exclaimed : " Good God ! 
there is my brother," pointing to the figure. But 
his friend with him did not see anything. The man, 
in his excitement, rushed down-stairs to find the 
brother, but did not succeed. On his return to Eng- 
land shortly afterwards he learned that his brother 
had died at the French Hospital, in Shanghai, in 
China, and inquiry showed that the death coincided 
very closely with the apparition. 

Another instance involved a sleepless night until 
something like a vision of a strange country oc- 
curred when the subject became conscious that he 
was with his brother in India, and that this brother 
died while he was with him. Three months later 
the news came which confirmed the death of this 
brother coincidentally with the vision. 

I take a little group of dream coincidences related 
to death and all of them experienced by the same 
person. 

"On the night of 29th of January, 1873, I 
dreamt that I saw a baby in a bath. When the post- 
bag came in the morning, I said to my husband, 
' Please don't open it yet, I am sure there will be 



234 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

news of a death in it, but I can't tell whose; none 
of our friends are ill, and the dream was so vague.' 
He laughed, and proceeded to open the bag; it con- 
tained a letter from the Rev. S. A., announcing the 
death of his only boy. [Here the dreamer had no 
knowledge of the illness of the person who died.] 

" On the night of April 24th, 1877, I dreamt that 
I saw an infant in a bath. On the 25th, I heard that 
my cousin, B. C, had died on the 24th. [Here the 
dreamer had no knowledge of the illness of the person 
who died.] 

" On June 11th, 1877, while asleep in a chair, I 
dreamt that I saw my husband's aunt, Mrs. B., look- 
ing at an infant in a bath ; she was dressed in white, 
with a strong Hght about her. She died in the 
evening of that day. [Here the dreamer knew of the 
illness of the person who died.] 

" Before my husband's death on November 17th, 
1880, I had my warning dream. I seemed to stand 
in deep mourning watching an infant in a bath." 

[Here the dream preceded the death by more than 
a day. The husband had been long ill, but his 
immediate death was not expected.] 

Before giving her experiences the lady, who is 
narrating them, states that her coincidental dreams 
are associated, as the reader will see, by the vision 
of an infant in a bath, and I have called attention 
to this group to note the circumstance that the vision 
or dream does not always have its significance in 
the details, but in the death coincidence. In study- 
ing the nature and conditions of such " communica- 



APPARITIONS 235 

tions " or apparitions such phenomena are of very 
great importance. 

Professor Royce records a number in the Ameri- 
can Proceedings, two of which I abbreviate. In the 
first a lady had sailed to Glasgow on the Cambria, 
expecting to return on the same steamer, but chose 
another, with some regret that she could not have / 

come back with the captain who had been so kind 
to her. On the night of October 19th, the same 
year, she called out in her sleep " The ship has gone 
down." A friend sleeping in the same room awakened 
her and asked what was the matter. The lady was 
crying and said : " The ship in which I went to Eng- 
land is lost. I saw it go down with all on board." 
She felt that Captain Carnigan was lost. Inquiry 
showed that the steamer Cambria was wrecked off 
Donegal, and only one person saved to confirm the 
fact, the news not reaching New York until after 
the dream occurred. 

The next instance is given on the authority of Mr. 
Ira Sayles, then on the United States Geological 
Survey, and addressed to Dr. Morton Prince, of 
Boston. Mr. Sayles vouches that the dream was told 
him before its verification later. 

A young man to whom the mother was much at- 
tached went west in the troublous times of slavery. 
One night not far from midnight the mother awoke 
her husband with a scream. He exclaimed : " Mother, 
what is the matter?" She replied: "Why! don't 
you see Johnny there.? He says to me, ' Mother, 
they've shot me. The bullet entered right here,' 
and he pointed to a hole over his right eye." The 



236 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

husband tried to convince his wife that she was 
dreaming, but she always insisted that she both saw 
and heard her son Johnny. 

" Two weeks afterward, however, the young man 
that went with the young Stewart to Kansas re- 
turned. The first thing he did was to visit Mr. 
Stewart at his law office, and to narrate to him there, 
that on a certain day, at four o'clock p. m., a Mis- 
sourian shot Johnny, the hall entering his head just 
above his right eye. Moreover, the day of the shoot- 
ing proved to be the very day on which Mrs. Stewart 
had her vision, at night, about six hours after the 
shooting." 

Mr. Sayles adds an interesting coincidence to this 
story. " I had myself," he says, " in 1856, lost a 
little daughter, nine years of age, and after her 
(Mrs. Stewart's) son's death she told me that Johnny 
came to her window one night, tapped on it, and she 
asked, ' Who's there ? ' The reply was : ' Johnny, I 
have found Florett.' That was my daughter's name." 

Most probably this last experience was a coinci- 
dental dream, though it is told as if it were a normal 
event. It is probably a waking dream of the border- 
land type. 

I shall refer briefly to one collective case, as in- 
volving three percipients, a lady, her nurse, and a 
little child. 

A Mrs. Hunter looked into her bedroom and saw 
a large cofl5n on the bed, " and sitting at the foot 
of it was a tall old woman steadfastly regarding 
it." She was laughed at for her experience, and 
when she went to the nursery, the nurse complained 



APPARITIONS 237 

that she " felt so queer," having " at 7 o'clock seen 
a tall old woman coming down-stairs." This, too, was 
laughed off, and about half an hour afterwards she 
" heard a piercing scream from her little daughter, 
aged five, followed by loud, frightened tones, and 
she then heard the nurse soothing the child. Next 
morning little E. was full of her wrongs. She said 
that a ' naughty old woman was sitting at the table 
and staring at her, and that made her scream.' 
Nurse told me that she found the child awake, sit- 
ting up in bed, pointing to the table, and crying 
out, ' Go away, go away, naughty old woman ! ' 
There was no one there. Nurse had been in bed 
some time, and the door was locked." 

A day or two afterwards a letter came from a son 
of a Mrs. Macfarlane, announcing her death, and 
telling that " her last hours were disturbed by anx- 
iety for my husband and his family." Mrs. Hunter 
had left in Mrs. Macfarlane's care a box of valu- 
ables. 

I can quote no more of this type. But to give 
some idea of their frequency I may mention the 
following particulars. In the record of the Phan- 
tasms of the Living there are some 380 instances, 
and these are but a small proportion of the number 
now collected. Of these thirty-one are of the wak- 
ing type, sixty-seven are coincidental dreams in- 
volving death coincidences, ninety-nine are border- 
land cases, meaning that the coincidental experience 
occurs in the borderland between sleeping and wak- 
ing states, forty-nine are visual apparitions alone, 
thirteen are visual and auditory, and eight are au- 



238 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ditory and tactile, while thirty-seven are collective, 
involving two or more percipients. Such a showing 
indicates that the death coincidences are more numer- 
ous than others ; for I have quoted a very large 
proportion of the type not involving death coinci- 
dences. But here we have about 380 instances ap- 
parently related to the death of persons indicated 
by the experiences narrated, and the question is 
whether we can treat them as casual, that is, acci- 
dental hallucinations. 

The answer of the collectors to this query is seen 
in their calculations which I can only abbreviate. I 
cannot explain the process by which the calculation 
was made, but it was extremely conservative. The 
conclusion was that the number of " subjective hallu- 
cinations of a recognized voice should be sixty-three 
times as large as they have been shown to be " in 
order to consider the hypothesis of chance. Another 
method of calculation showed that " from these data 
the odds against the occurrence by accident of as 
many coincidences of the type in question (auditory) 
are more than a trillion to ort^.^* 

The same authors further state : " But the reduc- 
tio ad ahsurdum becomes far more striking when 
we apply the doctrine of chances to visual cases." 
The calculation here shows that " the odds against 
the occurrence, by accident, of as many coincidences 
of the type in question as the thirty-one which that 
circle produced, are about a thousand billion trillion 
trillion trillions to oneJ*^ If this is the case with 
so small a collection, how would it stand with a larger 
one? 



APPARITIONS 239 

3. Apparitions of the Dead 

A hard and fast line between apparitions of the 
dying and of the dead cannot be drawn, especially 
as the collection supposed to represent the former 
included all cases supposed to have occurred within 
twelve hours after death. The exact time of final 
demise cannot be determined, and besides it was as- 
sumed that any telepathic impression produced by a 
dying person on a distant friend might have its 
emergence into consciousness deferred for the amount 
of time assumed. Hence the Hmit was an arbitrary 
line. However this may be, the Phantasms of the 
Living did not include those presumably of the dead. 
A primary reason for this was the desire to examine 
cases which did not present superficial credentials in 
favor of a spiritistic interpretation. In this ac- 
count, however, I do not require to limit myself to 
those types, especially as it is apparent to most per- 
sons that the same general theory will be involved 
in the explanation of phantasms of the dead. The 
reasons for this will appear in the conclusion of this 
chapter. 

Apparitions of the dead were as much the sub- 
ject of inquiry by the Society as the types already 
illustrated, but the results were not published in 
the volumes from which I have so freely quoted. 
They were published and discussed in the Society's 
Proceedings. I shall have to quote from these 
sources, being careful to have the interval between 
death and the apparition great enough to assure 
interest in the phenomenon. Before quoting in- 



240 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

stances, however, it is important to remark their 
importance and the difficulties attending their in- 
vestigation. 

In phantasms of the Hving and of the dying there 
is apparently evidence that, not being due to chance, 
they are objectively caused, though this cause may 
be nothing more than telepathy. But, says the late 
Mr. Edmund Gurney, " It is evident that in alleged 
cases of apparitions of the dead, the point which 
we have held to distinguish certain apparitions of 
living persons from purely subjective hallucinations 
is necessarily lacking. That point is coincidence 
between the apparition and some critical or excep- 
tional condition of the person who seems to appear; 
but with regard to the dead, we have no independent 
knowledge of their condition, and therefore never 
have the opportunity of observing any such coinci- 
dences. 

" There remain three, and I think only three, con- 
ditions which might establish a presumption that an 
apparition or other immediate manifestation of a 
dead person is something more than a mere subjective 
hallucination of the percipient's senses. Either (1) 
more persons than one might be independently af- 
fected by the phenomenon; or (2) the phantasm 
might convey information, afterwards discovered to 
be true, of something which the percipient had never 
known; or (3) the appearance might be that of a 
person whom the percipient himself had never seen, 
and of whose aspect he was ignorant, and yet his 
description of it might be sufficiently definite for 
identification. But though one or more of these 



APPARITIONS 241 

conditions would have to be fuUj satisfied before we 
could be convinced that any particular apparition 
of the dead had some cause external to the percipient's 
mind, there is one more general characteristic of 
the class which is sufficiently suggestive of such a 
cause to be worth considering. I mean the dispro- 
portionate number of cases which occur shortly after 
the death of the person represented. Such a time- 
relation, if frequently enough encountered, might 
enable us to argue for the objective origin of the 
phenomenon in a manner analogous to that which 
leads us to conclude that many phantasms of the liv- 
ing have an objective (a telepathic) origin. For, 
according to the doctrines of probabilities, a hallu- 
cination representing a known person would not hy 
chance present a definite time-relation to a special 
cognate event — viz., the death of that person — 
in more than a certain percentage of the whole num- 
ber of similar hallucinations that occur; and if that 
percentage is decidedly exceeded, there is reason to 
surmise that some other cause than chance — in other 
words, some objective origin for the phantasm — is 
present." The application of this principle will ap- 
pear in the sequel. 

The first instances shall represent apparitions near 
the point of death, but perhaps probably after it. 
I take them from Mr. Gurney's record of them, and 
readers of his work will know that he was abundantly 
cautious. I shall choose the cases with reference to 
their trustworthiness as narratives and regardless of 
their explanation. I have at present no theory to 
prove by them, but only that coincidental experiences 



342 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

took place. The first instance was contributed by 
the Bishop of Carhsle as an experience in the life 
of the Rev. G. M. Tandy. I shall abbreviate it. 

" When at Loweswater, I one day called upon a 
friend, who said, ' You do not see many newspapers ; 
take one of those lying there.' I accordingly took 
up a newspaper, bound with a wrapper, put it into 
my pocket and walked home. 

" In the evening I was writing, and, wanting to 
refer to a book, went into another room where my 
books were. I placed the candle on a ledge of the 
bookcase, took down a book and found the passage 
I wanted, when, happening to look towards the win- 
dow, which was opposite to the bookcase, I saw 
through the window the face of an old friend, whom 
I had known well at Cambridge, but had not seen 
for ten years or more. Canon Robinson (of the Char- 
ity and School Commission). I was so sure I saw 
him that I went out to look for him, but could find 
no trace of him. 

" I went back into the house and thought I would 
take a look at my newspaper. I tore off the wrap- 
per, unfolded the paper, and the first piece of news 
that I saw was the death of Canon Robinson ! " 

The next instance has a romantic and pathetic 
interest, and the coincidence is well supported. 

" I send you a short account, describing what I 
experienced at the time of the apparition of my 
friend, who was a young gentleman much attached 
to myself, and who would willingly (had I loved 
him well enough) have made me his wife. I became 
engaged to be married, and did not see my friend 



APPARITIONS 243 

(Mr. Akhurst) for some months, until within a 
week of my marriage (June, 1878), when in the 
presence of my husband he wished me every happi- 
ness, and regretted he had not been able to win 
me. 

" Time passed on. I had been married about two 
years and had never seen Mr. Akhurst, when one 
day my husband told me he (Mr. Akhurst) was in 
Newcastle and was coming to supper and was going 
to stay the night. When my husband and he were 
talking, he said my husband had been the more for- 
tunate of the two, but he added if anything hap- 
pened to my husband he could leave his money to 
whom he liked and his widow to him, and he would 
be quite content. I mention this to show he was 
still interested in me. 

" Three months passed and baby was born. When 
she was about a week old, very early one morning 
I was feeding her, when I felt a cold waft of air 
through the room and a feeling as if some one 
touched my shoulder; my hair seemed to bristle all 
over my head and I shuddered. Raising my eyes 
to the door (which faced me), I saw Mr. Akhurst 
standing in his shirt and trousers, looking at me, 
when he seemed to pass through the door. In the 
morning I mentioned it to my husband. I did not 
hear of Mr. Akhurst's death for some weeks after, 
when I found it corresponded with that of the appa- 
rition, and though my father knew of it before, he 
thought in my weak state of health it were better 
I should not be told." 

The husband confirms the story and states that 



244 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

it was six months afterward before he learned that 
Mr. Akhurst was dead, and inquiry showed that he 
had died at about 1 a. m. July 12th, and the date 
of the apparition was in September following, this 
being fixed by the birth of the child in that month. 

The next instance is also a good one evidentially, 
as the distance involved and the independent attes- 
tation of a newspaper show that the death could not 
have been known in the ordinary way. 

" On the 2d November, 1876, I arrived at my 
brother's house. My journey had been a long one 
— from 8 A. M to 8 p. M. I sat up late talking to 
my sister-in-law, and about 12 o'clock went to my 
room. There I spent some time arranging my be- 
longings. I found I had left something I wanted 
down in the hall, and feeling restless, I suppose, 
thought I must get it then, and not wait until the 
morning. So down-stairs I went. The house is a 
large one ; the passages long. My room was in the 
third story, and I had to go to the entrance-hall. 
It took me some time. On returning and entering 
the corridor in which my room was, I saw, standing 
beyond my doorway, a figure. It looked misty, as 
if, had there been a light behind it, I should have 
seen through the mist. This misty figure was the 
likeness of a friend of ours whom I knew to have 
been on a voyage to Australia. I stood and looked 
at ' It.' I put my hand over my eyes and looked 
again. Still it was there. Then it seemed to pass 
away, how I cannot say. I went on and into my 
room. I said to myself. My brain is tired out; and 
I hurried to bed so as to get rest. 



APPARITIONS 245 

" Next day I told my sister-in-law what I had 
seen. We laughed about my ghost. 

" I was away from home three weeks. On my 
return, my mother showed me the account in a news- 
paper of our poor friend's body having been cast 
on shore at Orfordness and buried as an unknown 
castaway the very time I saw the figure. We were 
the only friends he had in England, but why I saw 
him I cannot tell. It did no good to any one. One 
thing I should tell you, I had not been thinking or 
speaking of him." 

The headstone on the man's grave reads : " In 
memory of Frederick Gluyas Le Maistre, 2d Officer 
of the barque Gauntlet^ of London, native of Jersey, 
Channel Islands, aged 24 years and 5 months, whose 
body was found near Orfordness Harbour, October 
the 22d, 1876, his death having been occasioned by 
falling from on board the above-named vessel in the 
Downs on the 27th of September of the same year." 

The next instance I shall have to abbreviate, 
though it comes from excellent authority and is so 
interesting that only the want of space can excuse 
the abbreviation. The man who narrates it as his 
experience laughed at the idea that apparitions 
really occurred and had been in places where such 
things ought to occur if they were true. But he had 
a friend, whom he calls J. P., that had gone out 
to the Transvaal in Africa. When they bade each 
other farewell they expected to see each other again. 
But one night the narrator had gone to bed about 
one o'clock. Early in the morning this experience 
took place. 



^46 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" Standing by my bed, between me and the chest 
of drawers, I saw a figure, which, in spite of the 
unwonted dress — unwonted, at least, to me — and 
of a full black beard, I at once recognized as that 
of my old brother officer. He had on the usual 
khaki coat, worn by the officers on active service in 
eastern climates. A brown leather strap, which 
might have been the strap of his field service glass, 
crossed his breast. A brown leather girdle, with 
sword attached on the left side, and revolver-case 
on the right, passed round his waist. On his head he 
wore the ordinary white pith helmet of service. I 
noticed all these particulars in the moment that I 
started from sleep, and sat up in bed looking at him. 
His face was pale, but his bright black eyes shone 
as keenly as when, a year and a half before, they 
had looked upon me as he stood with one foot on 
the hansom, bidding me adieu. 

" Fully impressed for the brief moment that we 
were stationed together at C — in Ireland or some- 
where, and thinking I was in my barrack-room, I 
said, ' Hello! P., am I late for parade? ' P. looked 
at me steadily, and replied, ' I'm shot.' 

" ' Shot ! ' I exclaimed. ' Good God ! how and 
where .f^ ' 

" ' Through the lungs,' replied P., and as he spoke 
his right hand moved slowly up the breast, until the 
fingers rested over the right lung. 

" ' What were you doing. f^ ' I asked. 

" ' The General sent me forward,' he answered, 
and the right hand left the breast to move slowly 
to the front, pointing over my head to the window, 



APPARITIONS 24T 

and at the same moment the figure melted away. 
I rubbed my eyes, to make sure I was not dreaming, 
and sprang out of bed. It was then 4.10 a. m. by 
the clock on my mantelpiece." 

That day the gentleman looked for news from the 
war, but found none, and spoke to a friend about 
his experience, and on the next day the news placed 
his friend J. P. among the killed in the battle of 
Lang's Neck. The London Gazette shows that the 
man was killed probably between 11 and 12 o'clock 
on January 28th. It seems probable that the narra- 
tor's time, 4.10 in the morning, is wrong for his 
experience, but Mr. Gumey thinks that the appari- 
tion took place after death or very close to it. 

The next instance is especially interesting for 
the manner in which the coincidence was determined, 
and more especially for the way in which the person's 
identity was established and the coincidence made 
credible as pertinent to the possibility of an objective 
cause of some kind. I shall have to quote it in full. 

" I was sleeping in a hotel in Madeira in January, 
1885. It was a bright moonlight night. The win- 
dows were open and the blinds up. I felt some one 
was in my room. On opening my eyes, I saw a 
young fellow about twenty-five, dressed in flannels, 
standing at the side of my bed and pointing with the 
first finger of his right hand to the place where I was 
lying. I lay for some seconds to convince myself 
of some one being really there. I then sat up and 
looked at him. I saw his fea.tures so plainly that I 
recognized them in a photograph which was shown 
me some days after. I asked him what he wanted; 



248 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

he did not speak, but his eyes and hand seemed to 
tell me I was in his place. As he did not answer 
I struck out at him with my fist as I sat up, but 
did not reach him, and as I was going to spring 
out of bed he slowly vanished through the door, 
which was shut, keeping his eyes upon me all the 
time. 

" Upon inquiry I found that the young fellow 
who appeared to me died in the room I was occupy- 
ing." 

The writer signs himself as John E. Husbands, 
and a Miss Faulkner, who was resident at the hotel, 
writes her knowledge of the incident. 

" The figure that Mr. Husbands saw while in 
Madeira was that of a young fellow who died un- 
expectedly months previously, in the room which 
Mr. Husbands was occupying. Curiously enough, 
Mr. H. had never heard of him or his death. He 
told me the story the morning after he had seen 
the figure, and I recognized the young fellow from 
the description. It impressed me very much, but 
I did not mention it to him or anv one. I loitered 
about until I heard Mr. Husbands tell the same tale 
to my brother; we left Mr. H. and said simultane- 
ously, ' He has seen Mr. D.' 

" No more was said on the subj ect for days : then 
I abruptly showed the photograph. 

" Mr. Husbands said at once, ' This is the young 
fellow who appeared to me the other night, but he 
was dressed differently .' — describing a dress he 
often wore — 'cricket suit (or tennis) fastened at 
the neck with a sailor knot.' I must say that Mr. 



(MMaMNHMMHOMttlM 



APPARITIONS 249 

Husbands is a most practical man, and the very last 
one would expect a ' spirit ' to visit." 

Another case, described as a " local apparition," 
because it seems to represent a tendency of the al- 
leged spirit to linger about the locality in which the 
demise took place, involved the appearance to an 
entire stranger of a " ghost " which, when described, 
was recognized as an exact representation of the 
person who had died in that bed, even to the position 
and appearance. The account is too long to quote. 
When asked to describe her apparition the lady 
who had the experience said the " old wife was on 
top of the bed with her boots on, and her legs drawn 
up as though she were cold; her face was turned 
to the wall, and she had on what is known in the 
Highlands as a * sow-backed mutch,' that is, a white 
cap which only women wear ; it has a frill round 
the front, and sticks out at the back. She also wore 
a drab colored petticoat and a checked shawl round 
her shoulders drawn tight." This description is 
complete enough for identity, and when a neighbor 
heard the description, she at once recognized the old 
woman meant, who had been beaten by her husband 
and died from the effects of it, precisely in the posi- 
tion and condition indicated, and wholly unknown 
to the parties in the house who had rented it for 
the summer some time after the death of the woman. 
I am not troubled by the peculiarly uncanny features 
of the story, as science has nothing to do with these, 
but with the coincidence, whatever the explanation. 

The next instance also is well sustained, and be- 
cause of the distance involved and the difficulties of 



^^ggA 



250 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

supposing any possible previous knowledge it may 
be quoted. 

" I saw two respectably dressed females driving 
alone in a vehicle like a mineral cart. Their horse 
stopped at a water to drink ; but as there was no 
footing, he lost his balance, and in trying to recover 
it he plunged right in. With the shock, the women 
stood up and shouted for help, and their hats rose 
off their heads, and as all were going down I turned 
away crying, and saying, ' Was there no one at all 
to help them? ' upon which I awoke, and my hus- 
band asked me what was the matter. I related the 
above dream to him, and he asked me if I knew them. 
The impression of the dream and the trouble it 
brought was over me all day. I remarked to my 
son it was the anniversary of his birthday and my 
own, also — the 10th of First Month (January), 
and this is why I remember the date. 

"The following Third Month (March) I got a 
letter and a new^spaper from my brother in Australia, 
named Allen, letting me know the sad trouble which 
had befallen him in the loss, by drowning, of one 
of his daughters and her companion. Thou will 
see by the description given of it in the paper how 
the event corresponded with my dream. My niece 
was bom in Australia, and I never saw her." 

This was on the night of January 9th that the 
dream occurred and it was mentioned, as said, to the 
son on the 10th. The paper from Australia, sent 
to Kensington, London, was issued on Friday, Janu- 
ary 11th, and states the facts as follows. 

" A dreadful accident occurred in the neighbor- 



APPARITIONS 251 

hood of Wedderburn, on Wednesday last, resulting 
in the death of two women, named Lehey and Allen. 
It appears that the deceased were driving into 
Wedderburn in a spring cart from the direction of 
Kinypanial, when they attempted to water their 
horse at a dam on the boundary of Torpichen Sta- 
tion. The dam was ten or twelve feet deep in one 
spot, and into this deep hole they must have inad- 
vertently driven, for Mr. W. McKechnie, manager of 
Torpichen Station, upon going to the dam some 
hours afterward, discovered the spring cart and horse 
under the water, and two women's hats floating on 
the surface. The dam was searched, and the bodies 
of the two women, clasped in each other's arms, re- 
covered." 

According to the deposition of a brother of one 
of the drowned women, he saw them about 11 a. m., 
and did not see them alive after that, while it was 
about 4 p. M. that Mr. McKechnie found the cart, 
etc. The husband of the dreamer confirms his wife's 
statements as to the date and details of the dream. 

Mr. Goirney recognizes that the dream occurred 
some hours after the death, but knows no way to 
explain the coincidence unless " clairvoyance " or 
telepathy from the mind of the brother when he 
wrote his letter. But a " clairvoyance " that does 
not coincide with the events seen is one not familiar 
even to the imagination of the spiritualists. Telep- 
athy from a living person might have been the 
description of the phenomenon. 

The next instance I shall abbreviate. It is taken 
from Mr. Gurney's collection, A gentleman and his 



852 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

wife were staying at a strange house. A lady stay- 
ing at the same place died in her chair one evening 
and the fact was mentioned the next morning to his 
wife by the gentleman indicated. That night the 
wife had a vision of a man " at the foot of the bed, 
an old gentleman with a round rosy face, smiling, 
his hat in his hand, dressed in an old-fashioned coat 
(blue) with brass buttons, hght waistcoat, and trou- 
sers." The lady said nothing about it until she 
could inquire of one of her nieces whether the appa- 
rition could be that of Dr. R. On describing her 
experience to the niece the latter at once recognized 
the correctness of the guess. This Dr. R. died in 
1865, and the apparition of him occurred in 1868. 

Mr. Gurney has twenty-seven instances of this 
type in his collection. Unfortunately he died before 
he could make it larger, and the later results of in- 
quiry were embodied in the Census of Hallucinations, 
from which an instance or two must be quoted. 

" My friend, whom I had known intimately for 
the greater part of my life, had become weak and 
failing from age, and, for a week or so, I had been 
receiving very serious accounts of her condition. 
On the Saturday morning (January 31st), following 
days of illness, I received letters saying she was 
better, and fears of her immediate death seemed past. 

" On the Sunday evening, however, I had a strong 
impression that my friend had gone from us ; but 
through cross-country posts I got no news on Mon- 
day morning. On the Monday night when I lay 
down in bed there came to me a conviction that she 
was trying to make her presence felt, and I became 



APPARITIONS 253 

aware of her standing in an angle between my bed 
and the fire; not oppressed with extreme age as I 
had often seen her in the last year or so, but in the 
vigor of middle age when I had most intercourse 
with her. 

" The color of her dress and cap — the fashion of 
both — were absolutely familiar to me as belonging 
to that time. She stood poised in a natural attitude 
— her figure with absolute solidity — looking 
straight at m}^ face lying on the pillow. . . . 

" In the morning following the appearance I re- 
ceived the news of her death, which had taken place 
between 3 and 4 a. m. on the Sunday morning (Feb- 
ruary 1st)." 

I shall also abbreviate the next case and make it 
the last taken from the volume quoted. 

" At Fiesole, on March 11th, 1869, I was giving 
my little children their dinner at half -past one o'clock. 
It was a fine hot day. As I was in the act of serving 
macaroni and milk from a high tureen, so that I 
had to stand to reach it and give my attention to 
what I was doing, — on raising my head (as much 
from fatigue as for any purpose), the wall opposite 
me seemed to open, and I saw my mother lying dead 

on her bed in her httle house at . Some flowers 

were at her side and on her breast ; she looked calm, 
but unmistakably dead, and the coffin was there. 

" It was so real that I could scarcely believe that 
the wall was really brick and mortar, and not a trans- 
parent window — in fact, it was a wall dividing the 
hotel in which we were living from the Carabinieri. 
I was in very weak health — suffering intensely 



a 



254^ ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

with neuralgia — the baby was almost still-bom, on 
January 31st. 

" Owing to a family quarrel, I had left England 
without telling my people where I was going; but 
I was so fond of my mother that, when in Paris, 
I made an excuse to write to an old servant, who 
lived with my mother, to ask her for a toy which 
we had left with her — the ob j ect being to get 
news of my mother. Reply came that for years 
she had not been so well and strong; thus I had 
no reason for imagining her to be dead. 

" I was so distressed at the vision, that I wrote 
to her (my mother) to give her my address, and 
entreat her to let me know how she was. By return 
of post came the statement that she had died on 
March 5th and was buried on the 11th. 

" When I was married, my mother made me prom- 
ise, as I was leaving home, to be sure to let her know 
in any way God permitted if I died, and she would 
try to find some way of communicating to me the 
fact of her death — supposing that circumstances 
prevented the usual methods of writing or telegraph- 
ing. I considered the vision a fulfilment of this 
promise, for my mind was engrossed with my own 
grief and pain — the loss of baby, and my neuralgia, 
and the anxieties of starting a new life." 

The facts show that this apparition occurred six 
days after the death. The sisters of the narrator 
before the mother's death saw an apparition of their 
godmother, who had died in 1852. There are twelve 
of these cases reported in the Census, and added to 
Mr. Gurney's collection make thirty-nine. I quote 



APPARITIONS 255 

one more involving a promise to return after 
death. 

" I awoke from sleep and saw a brother, who had 
been dead more than five years, standing at the foot 
of my bed. He stood still, gazing at me earnestly. 
I cannot remember a voice, but he distinctly con- 
veyed to my mind the impression that I was to have 
no more anxiety and that all would be for the best. 
I said, ' Oh, Arthur! ' and jumped up to go to him, 
when he vanished. This took place on a bright 
sunny morning about 4.30 a. m. in June, 1872. No 
one was present. I was in perfect health ; but we 
had family trouble at the time. I was twenty-eight. 
My brother in life had said he would appear after 
death if possible." 

I turn next to cases of apparitions more than a 
year after the death of the person apparent. They 
are interesting as removing the ordinary interpre- 
tation of their meaning. The effects of anxiety or 
grief cannot be assumed as the most likely cause. 

A gentleman was looking after some books in a 
library and saw a face apparently peering around 
the comer of a shelf and then noticed that the body 
was in the bookcase. He advanced toward the figure 
and noticed that it was " an old man with high 
shoulders, with his back toward the observer and a 
shuffling gait. The face was pallid and hairless, 
and the orbits of the eyes were very deep." 

On mentioning the experience to a friend the 
next morning this person at once recognized the man 
represented and said, " Why, that's old Q ! " In- 
quiry showed that he had died about the time of 



^56 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

year at which the gentleman saw the figure. Mr. 
Myers says that the experience was obtained by him- 
self from a person known to himself and widely 
known in the scientific world. Mr. Myers reports 
fourteen cases of this type, and they may be added 
to the thirty-nine already mentioned, making fifty- 
three in all. 

Mr. Myers also quotes twenty-five cases of appar- 
ently continued knowledge of terrene events after 
death involving coincidences similar to those of 
apparitions of the living. They are long and tedious 
cases, and I shall not quote them. The number, 
however, can possibly be added to the fifty-three 
cases, and will make seventy-eight in all. 

In dealing with the explanation of such phenomena 
the first problem was to ascertain whether such coin- 
cidences could be by chance. It was assumed that 
the circumstances might justify supposing that the 
experiences were casual hallucinations. For various 
reasons the total number of cases are cut down to 
thirty, which were well enough accredited to accept 
them as definitely coincidental without a doubt. This 
was estimated to be about one in forty-three of the 
thirteen hundred cases, coincidental and non-coin- 
cidental. 

" Since the average death-rate in England and 
Wales (from which the cases were collected) is 19.15 
per 1,000, the probability that any one person 
taken at random will die on a given day is 19.15 in 
365,000 or about 1 in 19,000. This may be taken 
as the general probability that he will die on the 
day in which his apparition is seen and recognized, 



APPARITIONS 257 

supposing that there is no causal connection between 
the apparition and death. In other words, out of 
every 19,000 apparitions of living persons there 
should be by chance one death coincidence. 

" But the actual proportion found, viz., 1 in 43, 
is equal to about 440 in 19,000, or 440 times the 
probable number. Or, looking at the matter another 
way, we should require 30 x 19,000, or 570,000 ap- 
paritions to produce by chance thirty cases of death 
coincidences. Of these apparitions we may safely 
assume that about one-quarter, or 142,000, would 
be remembered. We should therefore expect to have 
to collect 142,000 cases, instead of 350, in order 
to obtain by chance thirty death coincidences." 
The 380 were cut down to 350. 

Assuming that chance is excluded from the ex- 
planation of the coincidences in the thirty cases, we 
can well imagine how much more it is excluded from 
the larger number, if made acceptable. The ex- 
planation of the phenomena after thus eliminating 
chance is not so easy. Of course, the general ex- 
planation of leading psychical researchers, at least 
for all apparitions preceding death and so including 
apparitions of living and dying persons, is telepathy. 
The circumstance which lends this hypothesis its 
importance is that the first two classes of them can 
lay no claims to being proof of survival after death, 
at least according to the very nature of the case 
and the standard of evidence, — which must be that 
of the personal identity of a deceased person, that 
is, apparitions not due to chance. The telepathic 
hypothesis is most apparent in all instances repre- 



258 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

senting apparitions of living persons, whether they 
be of the experimental or spontaneous type. The 
fact that a number of these apparitions or coinci- 
dental phenomena had no relation to illness or death, 
but were definitely related to the present ideas or 
states of consciousness in the agent and percipient, 
and not apparitions of the dying or dead, is a fact 
that coincides exactly with the type of phenomena 
quoted in support of experimental telepathy. The 
consequence is that, if we are to assume a cause at 
all as against chance coincidence, we have to assume 
telepathy. It is certain that, evidentially, no other 
causal agency, if telepathy be this, can be supposed 
until we have gone farther in psychic research. Of 
course this assumed telepathy means that the causal 
nexus is directly between two living minds and repre- 
sents the access to present active mental states of the 
agent transferred to the percipient. I do not use 
the term to express any other type of phenomenon. 

There is a way of looking at apparitions of the 
living that turns them into an argument for the 
possibility of the discarnate, and it is one that has 
recommended itself to philosophic thinkers, though 
I do not agree with their view of the matter. If the 
soul can divest itself of its bodily connection long 
enough to appear to a friend or stranger at a dis- 
tance it has no such relation to the organism as is 
implied by the materialistic interpretation of con- 
sciousness as a function of it. It can assume a sort 
of " discarnate " condition before the body perishes. 
We might even suppose, consistently with the numer- 
ous apparitions of that kind, that the conditions for 



APPARITIONS ^59 

its appearance might be better before death than 
after. But disregarding this as requiring more evi- 
dence than we can command, the supposition that 
the tenure of the body is as precarious as apparitions 
of the hving might imply, we might defend an in- 
dependence of the organism that is wholly incom- 
patible with materialism, and that once supposed 
survival after death would at least be a proved 
possibility, and only two objections could be raised 
to it. One would be the view of the Epicurean who 
maintained that the soul, though an independent 
organism, also perished at the same time as the body. 
The other would be the real or alleged absence of 
evidence for its being a fact, though this would not 
affect the possibility per se. 

The real objection to using apparitions as an ar- 
gument for the independent existence of mind is the 
hypothesis of telepathy. We find reason to believe, 
accepting telepathy as a fact, that the thoughts of 
the agent may appear as apparent physical realities, 
that is, the thoughts of the agent are the percipient's 
hallucinations. Such a conception does not require 
us to suppose that the soul leaves the body, but only 
that it can produce an hallucinatory effect at a dis- 
tance while it remains in connection with the organ- 
ism, or even is nothing more than a function of that 
organism. Hence the possibility of telepathic phan- 
tasms must stand in the way evidentially of inter- 
preting phantasms of the living as evidence of the 
independent existence of mind, especially when we 
have to deal with apparitions of the living which 
coincide with the existence of normal consciousness 



y 



260 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

of the person at a place distant from the place of 
appearance. It is this that lends force to the ex- 
planation hj telepathy. I will concede difficulties, 
however, in the telepathic theory, and that we may 
admit some claims in apparitions of the living to 
the possibility that the mind has its own existence 
occasionally made independent of the organism. 

Those who do not admit the telepathic hypothesis 
as a phenomenon at all can hardly have any other 
explanation of phantasms of the living than their 
testimony to this independent existence of mind; 
and in any case the point of view is suggestive 
enough to entitle scepticism to play its part in re- 
ducing the confidence of the materialist. Instead of 
finding the unity of all apparitions, of the living 
and the dead, in telepathy between the living it 
would seem as rational to assume that both can be 
explained by the independence of mind, and that 
the evidence for this independence in the case of the 
dead is harder to obtain in the same quantity as in 
the case of the living. At any rate with the inde- 
pendence of mind assumed we have only an eviden- 
tial question to deal with in its survival after death, 
though that evidence might not be necessary to 
such a conclusion when we assumed the indestructi- 
bility of energy. 

When it comes to apparitions of the dead, if they 
can be supposed to be more than chance coincidence 
will explain, it will not be so easy to apply the tele- 
pathic theory without admitting survival after death, 
which is the thing to be proved. The object of 
forming our theories on phenomena not involving 



APPARITIONS 261 

survival is to both articulate the facts with our nor- 
mal knowledge so far as that is possible and to 
eliminate all the prejudices attaching, whether justly 
or unjustly, to the belief in transcendental realities. 
But the very grounds on which telepathy is applied 
to apparitions of the living are such as to exclude 
its application to apparitions of the dead without 
assuming their existence, unless we suppose that the 
telepathic hallucination is produced from the mind 
of some living relative of the deceased. It is clear, 
however, in any case, that the same general theory 
has to be adopted for all three classes of apparitions, 
those of the living, those of the dying, and those of 
the dead. The whole series graduate into each other 
in such a manner, are so decidedly alike in their 
essential characteristics, and are so related to critical 
moments in the lives of certain persons that it is 
very difficult to avoid the same ultimate explanation, 
whether that includes survival or not. If this hy- 
pothesis be telepathy, as usually defined, it limits 
the process, evidentially, to the living, and as long 
as this is supposed and is actually connected with 
the approach or climax of death there is a natural 
tendency to extend it to cases beyond, even if we 
have to assume that the agent is not the same in 
apparitions after death as the agent before death. 
The spiritualist, of course, is so anxious to main- 
tain the truth of his hypothesis, whether it applies 
to coincidences among the living or not, that he is 
chary of admitting telepathy in the cases involving 
apparitions after death, and presses his case as 
strongly as the telepathlst can press his for appa- 



262 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ritions of the living and dying. Evidentially, as I 
have said, I think that telepathy is the only assump- 
tion beyond chance that is applicable to the first two 
classes, whatever else may be implied. 

I shall not lay any special emphasis on the limi- 
tations of the conception of telepathy. It is a fact 
that its scientific meaning and legitimacy hmits its 
import to coincidences between the thoughts of living 
persons having a causal rather than a casual con- 
nection, and also not due to normal methods of ac- 
quiring knowledge. There is no adequate scientific 
evidence for any other kind of " telepathy," and 
the public entirely misunderstands the position of the 
scientists when it assumes that telepathy is coexten- 
sive with any coincidence in supernormal knowledge. 
But I shall not urge this limited import of the term 
as implying that any other explanation of the coin- 
cidences is impossible or improbable. The one point 
to be accepted and pressed is, that whatever its 
import in relation to the facts described, it is always 
taken to imply a direct process between living minds 
and excluding the necessity of an indirect process 
through transcendental agencies. In the absence of 
evidence that there are such realities there is no al- 
ternative to making it a process between the living. 
But even on this supposition there are two things in 
this assumed process about which we are ignorant. 
(1) We know nothing about the nature of this as- 
sumed process, whether it represents a mode of 
motion between two living minds or some peculiar 
activity not recognized in our conceptions of matter 
and motion. (2) We cannot exclude the agency of 



APPARITIONS ^63 

transcendental realities from mediating the whole 
result, though we may have no satisfactory evidence 
that they exist. They might produce all sorts of 
effects, if they existed, and yet not reveal their iden- 
tity. We are completely in the dark as to both their 
existence and influence, and as long as that is the 
case we cannot say they do not produce the results, 
though we have no right to assume that they do. 

I present the nature and limitations of our knowl- 
edge on this matter simply to show that we have 
hardly yet begun to investigate the problem, and 
to indicate that there is, as yet, no excuse for the 
unintelligent application of the hypothesis to every 
supernormal fact that comes along. 

But assuming that the process is a direct one be- 
tween two minds and not involving a third mind to 
mediate it, there is a most important fact to be taken 
into account in any application of the hypothesis. 
If the reader will notice the various cases quoted 
he will find that nearly always the agent involved 
in the supposed telepathy is the person seen or 
thought of. Rarely, if ever, does some one else than 
the agent appear in the apparition. It is so constant 
that any other occurrence must be regarded as the 
anomaly, and the telepathy must be assumed to be 
normally between the percipient and the person seen 
or heard, or both seen and heard. Accepting this 
as the prevalent fact, we can at once see that ap- 
paritions of the dead cannot be explained on this 
assumption without admitting that such apparitions 
are a proof of the existence of discarnate spirits. 
On the other hand, if we assume that apparitions of 



264 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the dead are telepathically produced by the Hving, 
say friends of the deceased, we introduce another 
conception of the agent in apparitions of the hving 
than the person seen, and we are where we should 
only require evidence of discarnate existence, say 
in mediumistic phenomena, in order to make plausi- 
ble the intervening agency of the discarnate to pro- 
duce supernormal phenomena of all kinds. At any 
rate we cannot assume the person represented in the 
apparition to be the agent without involving our- 
selves in the spiritistic theory for apparitions of the 
dead not due to casual hallucinations. It would cer- 
tainly be strange and anomalous to suppose the ex- 
perimenter, the ill person, or the dying person, the 
agent in producing telepathic apparitions and not 
suppose that the same probability applied to the 
hypothesis of spirits in phantasms of the dead. I 
think this will be clear to every one, and equally 
clear, perhaps, the fact that any assumption of other 
agents than those who appear in the living is want- 
ing in evidence, and would open the way to a tertiwm 
quid, or third agency concealed behind the scenes. 
There would be no limit to assumptions of tran- 
scendental influences on this idea of the cause. 

But it is possible that we have more to deal with 
in the application of telepathy than the mere process 
and agents involved. As long as we are seeking 
conclusive evidence for a discarnate existence we 
must naturally see that any classification of phe- 
nomena as telepathic must exclude the spiritistic ex- 
planation. The theory of discarnate spirits requires 
for its support phenomena proving personal identity 



APPARITIONS 265 

after death; telepathic phenomena, or all such as are 
explicable by telepathy, cannot be evidence of an- 
other hfe. That is self-evident. But if we are to 
believe that apparitions of the dead not due to chance 
are evidence of spirit existence, we may well imagine 
that the method of communication between spirits 
and the living is telepathic, as we have observed that 
telepathic impressions appear in the form of phan- 
tasms or hallucinations. We could thus extend telep- 
athy to cover all the phenomena of apparitions, not 
as their sole condition, but as the process of effecting 
the result, while we seek for reasons to explain that 
the phenomena are common to the living and the 
dead. The point, then, to be considered in telepathy, 
besides the process, is its meaning. Concentration on 
its evidential relation to the spiritistic hypothesis dis- 
tracts attention from its relation to the materialistic 
hypothesis in general. We must examine this matter. 
There is no reason to doubt the fact of survival 
after death except the meaning and strength of the 
materialistic theory of organic life. Materialism 
holds that consciousness is a function of the organism, 
analogous to digestion and circulation, and so per- 
ishable with the body. The only way to finally dis- 
lodge this position is to produce evidence that a par- 
ticular consciousness has not perished as a fact, and 
the evidence that will suggest this very strongly 
would be apparitions of the dead not due to chance 
and mediumistic communications which cannot be 
explained by telepathy between the Kving. Now this 
materialism can hold its ground as long as we have 
no evidence that consciousness is not a function of 



266 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

organism. Hence the whole problem seems limited to 
the proof of this one fact, and it does not require 

THAT WE HAVE ANY THEORY OF THE NATURE OF THE 

SOUL. The common notion is that there is a soul 
inhabiting the body and that this soul is conscious. 
Assuming such a realitj — and I do not mean to 
question the fact — we can imagine it to have all 
sorts of capacities not indicated in its normal func- 
tioning. We might thus have a position to make 
intelligible the occurrence of supernormal phenomena. 
But we have the existence of the soul to prove, and 
its proof requires that we obtain traces of an indi- 
vidual consciousness, which we can refer to a soul, 
if we prefer, or make a stream in the universal force, 
it matters not. But supposing a continuance of con- 
sciousness after death, the most natural supposition 
is that it proves a soul, that is, some sort of reality, 
finite or infinite, it matters not, which exists before 
death and of which consciousness is a function. The 
argument for survival does not require us to assume 
more than a stream of consciousness to satisfy the 
spiritistic and to disprove the materialistic theory. 
Hence the problem appears to be one in which the 
only question is whether a relation between one liv- 
ing consciousness and another is enough to account 
for the phenomena, or whether we have to suppose 
a discarnate consciousness to account for some of 
them. In thus looking at the problem we forget to 

ask WHAT THE MEANING OF TELEPATHY IS IN RELA- 
TION TO MATERIALISTIC THEORY. 

Now the materialistic theory assumes that func- 
tions of the organism are limited in their action to 



APPARITIONS 267 

the spatial mass of the body. Digestion, circulation, 
assimilation, sensation, all the functions go on in 
the body and produce no known transcendental ef- 
fects on matter. Radiation of heat occurs, but this 
is not properly a function of the body, but is the 
result of a function in the body which is limited. We 
are isolated beings. We get into relation with others 
only by contact of some kind. Ordinary communi- 
cation of ideas is only an interpretation of signs and 
this interpretation is an intra-organic process and 
does not go beyond the organism. In our normal 
life consciousness is assumed to be such a function, 
on the materialistic hypothesis ; and if it be such 
it cannot extend its operations beyond the organism, 
any more than digestion and circulation can do it. 
I do not say that it does not so extend its influence 
as a fact, but only that on the ordinary conception 
of materialism it cannot so extend its agency, with- 
out widening materialistic conceptions so much as 
to deprive it of antagonism to the opposite theory. 
Telepathy certainly involves an extraordinary influ- 
ence at a distance. This might imply such a varia- 
tion from the usual explanations as to require some 
" soul " or reality other than the body to account 
for the exceptional facts, and if that is once granted 
we have the doctrine of the indestructible nature of 
substance, whether sensible or supersensible, as a 
guarantee that the soul survives dissolution, whether 
personal identity does or not. Consequently, telep- 
athy may have a meaning for functions that inter- 
fere as effectively with the materialistic hypothesis 
as identity phenomena. If so it is doubly a mis- 



268 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

take to suppose it in any way opposed to a larger 
interpretation of mental facts. It can only limit 
the kind and amount of conclusive evidence for sur- 
vival while it opens a presumptive way to difficulties 
with materialism right within the field of supernor- 
mal phenomena that are not evidence of this survival. 
It opens this way by suggesting the very conditions 
of survival before any final proof of it is possible. 
Another difficulty with the materialistic theory is 
that, in the case of apparitions of the living near 
death or in illness, it has to assume that consciousness 
can do more than in the normal condition. Ordinary 
materialism must assume that consciousness performs 
its functions best when the organism is healthy, and 
it would not naturally expect telepathic phenomena 
to be caused by the conditions which weaken the 
mind's action. There is no use to say that it is the 
subliminal and hyperaesthesic conditions of the or- 
ganism that determined it and not the normal func- 
tions of the body ; for hyperaesthesia and subliminal 
action involve activities when the normal conscious- 
ness seems entirely suspended, and the existence of 
powers on the borderline of more refined and delicate 
agencies than the grosser senses is a suspicion of a 
supersensible world that robs materialism of its con- 
ceptions as based upon ordinary sensations. The 
more that we refer telepathic action to subliminal 
action the more likely we make the theory that sub- 
liminal functions do not represent the natural physi- 
cal world of sense, but are a foresight of a spiritual 
world toward which the evolution of the mind is 
moving. All that would remain would be to produce 



APPARITIONS 269 

phenomena that make telepathy between the Hving 
improbable in order to have scientific evidence for 
this survival. Besides, this view would consist with 
the possibility that apparitions of the dead are not 
telepathic ally produced by the living, if they are 
not assumed to be due to chance. The consequence 
is that we have the wider theory of a soul " sub- 
stance " to account for consciousness in any condi- 
tion, incarnate or discarnate, while we may imagine 
the process of communication between the incarnate 
and discarnate to be what we please, as a condition of 
explaining the facts. Besides, the supposed existence 
of a subject other than the brain for consciousness 
in the living and capable of surviving would furnish 
an assumption which would make probable the oc- 
currence of all sorts of borderland phenomena be- 
tween the living and the dead, such as clairvoyance, 
telepathy, etc., to say nothing of hyperaesthesia and 
allied phenomena. 

The trouble which many people have with the sup- 
position that, if phantasms of the dead rightly attest 
the existence of spirits, they offer an insoluble diffi- 
culty in the appearance of clothes. This is the ob- 
jection which has occurred to nearly every one who 
has been asked to respect the testimony for such facts. 
All that I have to say is that the circumstance is 
wholly irrelevant. If the coincidence is such that 
it attests survival as the only natural explanation, 
we must treat the apparition of clothes as an inci- 
dental phenomenon to be explained by subsidiary 
hypotheses. The fact is not an objection to the 
hypothesis, but a perplexity in it. However, this is 



no ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

not the answer to the objection so constantly urged. 
The real reply is that the phenomenon does not give 
the intelligent psychologist any trouble. He is quite 
willing to recognize that the whole apparition, 
clothes and all, is an hallucination. He simply re- 
gards it as a veridical hallucination, and thereby 
means that it is caused by an extra-organic though 
supernormal stimulus, as subjective hallucinations 
are produced by intra-organic or normal extra- 
organic stimuli. He does not require to believe that 
the spirit is seen where it is any more than he sup- 
poses that telepathic phantasms are real as seen. 
Readers, if they consult the original data or evi- 
dence for telepathy, will notice that the telepathic 
effect is an hallucination, and very often one that is 
fused more or less with some memory of the subject. 
This is quite frequently the case with apparitions of 
the dead. Readers may have noticed that they often 
represent the individual as known by the percipient 
and not as the subject died. True, their present and 
unknown appearance is often presented, but per- 
haps not so often as in the form of some memory 
picture of them. Hence, as we do not suppose any- 
thing more than a stimulus to affect the subliminal 
with identity of the agent, we can assume that the 
subliminal, according to its usual function, produces 
a phantasm of the person. When the subject is 
seen as he has not been known we can assume that 
the process is clairvoyant, and not telepathic. In 
some cases both processes may be active, and we have 
a fusion of memory pictures elicited by telepathy 
and of real facts elicited by clairvoyant conditions. 



APPARITIONS £71 

Kant's theory of the ideahty of space will help this 
conception out, so that the orthodox idealist can have 
no criticism to make upon the view. 

I am, of course, indulging hypotheses at this point, 
but, with perhaps the exception of clairvoyance, they 
are hypotheses accepted by psychical researchers at 
least, and they are telepathy and telepathic hallu- 
cinations. These remove the ordinary difficulty of 
the laymen about apparitions and make possible the 
belief that all sorts of representations in the physical 
and mental world may take place, as effects of the 
discamate, without being facsimiles of the source 
which instigates them. I, of course, hold such theo- 
ries in abeyance for further evidence, and would not 
push them, but to solve the perplexities which seem 
natural and to remove such difficulties as the attempt 
to explain all three types of apparitions by telep- 
athy between the living must involve us without 
further investigation. Nor would I encourage con- 
fidence in the spiritistic explanation of phantasms 
of the dead, until we have gathered much more mate- 
rial and' perhaps material with better evidence of its 
supernormal character. Apparitions are not likely 
to be sufficient proof of survival after death for the 
scientific man until better records are made of the 
facts. The hypothesis can be tolerated as an alter- 
native to ordinary suppositions not evidentially sus- 
tained, but it is not to be considered as in any respect 
proved by the data now on hand. We shall have to 
educate those who have such experiences to observe 
more carefully and to make contemporary records 
of them. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CLAIRVOYANCE 

The older common meaning of clairvoyance made it 
very comprehensive. It comprised all that scientific 
analysis had reduced to several classes, namely, 
telepathy, apparitions, and mediumistic phenomena, 
as well as what is now known technically as " clair- 
voyance " by the chief leaders of psychic research. 
This technical meaning is the result of distinguish- 
ing carefully between phenomena that do not ap- 
parently involve the same causes, and certainly do 
not assume the same form. Clairvoyance technically, 
therefore, is a name for a supposed or alleged process 
of perceiving objects or scenes at a distance and with- 
out any of the normal impressions of sense. It dif- 
fers from telepathy in the fact that the phenomena 
presumably explained by it are not necessarily mental 
states of some one at a distance. The apparent char- 
acter of clairvoyance is that it represents percep- 
tion of distant objects rather than the perception 
of distant minds. That is, at least, the superficial 
appearance of the phenomena, and they seem neither 
to serve as evidence of discarnate agency nor of 
telepathy. It is, therefore, narrowed down to a 
process apparently analogous to vision, with the 
difference that it is supernormal, whereas ordinary 

vision is normal. In thus defining it, however, I am 

272 



CLAIRVOYANCE 273 

not implying that it is a fact, but that, if it be a 
fact, this is the conception which we have to take of 
it. Whether the alleged phenomenon is possible or 
not I shall not assume at present. I shall only re- 
count first the alleged facts presumed to suggest or 
support the claim. 

One thing we must remember. The definition of 
clairvoyance may be very clear to our imagination, 
but we must not forget that it ought to be defined, 
and in the end must be defined, by the facts which 
we discover. We do not yet know what the facts 
are that might illustrate it and much less do we 
know the limits of the alleged phenomenon. Besides, 
for most people there is complete ignorance of the 
delicate psychological functions which might give 
rise to phenomena that are taken for supernormal, 
and which are truly not normal, but which are by 
no means what the imagination too often takes them 
to be, simply for the lack of psychological knowl- 
edge that would modify their interpretation. Con- 
sequently I do not mean by the definition given that 
we have any clear-cut idea of the cause of alleged 
clairvoyant experiences: for these may shade into 
all sorts of extraordinary phenomena that are not 
what the definition implies. I mean only to use a 
term which distinguishes certain alleged facts from 
others with which we are either more familiar or 
more satisfied. It may be a mistake to select the 
extreme type of phenomenon to define what is meant 
by the term. Nevertheless this is the only clear way 
to distinguish the alleged phenomenon from others, 
and we may then estimate the evidence for its claims 



^n ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

according as it illustrates the claim or is explicable 
by simpler hypotheses, though they are not the 
famihar ones to our normal experience. 

In presenting the facts claiming classification as 
clairvoyant I shall have no reference to their ulti- 
mate explanation. It may be that they will articulate 
either with telepathy or hyperaesthesia at various 
times, but it will appear difficult in others to suppose 
any such complication. However this may be, I shall 
start with historical cases told by Mr. Frank Podmore 
in his Modem Spiritualism, 

The first instance is the historical case of Alexis 
Didier, whose performances had mystified even Robert 
Houdin, the prince of prestidigitators and illusion 
workers. Didier was in charge of a man who had 
the reputation of a gentleman. Didier apparently 
read cards with their faces toward the table, or 
passages in a closed book and the like. But in the 
absence of any careful records and conditions that 
would exclude very simple fraud with which most 
intelligent men are perfectly familiar, there is no 
reason, as Mr. Podmore clearly shows, to suppose 
that anything of a really remarkable character oc- 
curred. The whole case is an example of what had 
imposed upon generations of credulous or careless 
people. Mr. Podmore is right in attaching more 
weight to the account of Professor de Morgan, who 
had been a careful observer of unusual phenomena. 
He was an able mathematician and logician in the 
University of London. Though Professor de Mor- 
gan's account is long, it is too important to abbre- 
viate, especially as certain details are necessary to 



CLAIRVOYANCE ^75 

protect the case against certain very simple objec- 
tions to its cogency in favor of something super- 
normal. The following is Professor de Morgan's ac- 
count of an experiment by Mrs. de Morgan, and ex- 
plains itself: 

" I have seen a good deal of Mesmerism, and have 

tried it myself on for the removal of ailments. 

But this is not the point. I had frequently heard 
of the thing they call clairvoyance, and had been 
assured of the occurrence of it in my own house, 
but always considered it as a thing of which I had no 
evidence direct or personal, and which I could not 
admit till such evidence came. 

" One evening I dined at a house about a mile 
from my own — a house in which my wife had never 
been at that time. I left it at half -past ten, and 
was in my own house at a quarter to eleven. At my 
entrance my wife said to me, * We ha^e been after 
you,* and told me that a little girl whom she mes- 
merized for epileptic fits (and who left her cured), 
and of whose clairvoyance she had told me other in- 
stances, had been desired in the mesmeric state to 

follow me to Street, to — 's house. The thing 

took place at a few minutes after ten. On hear- 
ing the name of the street, the girl's mother said: 

" ' She will never find her way there. She has 
never been so far away from Camden Town.' 

" The girl in a moment got there. ' Knock at the 
door,' said my wife. ' I cannot,' said the girl ; ' we 
must go in at the gate.' (The house, a most unusual 
thing in London, stands in a garden; this my wife 
knew nothing of.) Having made the girl go in 



276 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

and knock at the door, or simulate, or whatever the 
people do, the girl said she heard voices up-stairs, 
and being told to go up, exclaimed, ' What a comi- 
cal house! there are three doors,' describing them 
thus. [Diagram given.] (This was true, and is 
not usual in any but large houses.) On being told 
to go into the room from whence voices came, she 
said, ' Now I see Mr. de Morgan, but he has a nice 
coat on, and not the long coat he wears here; and 
he is talking to an old gentleman, and there are 
ladies.' This was a true description of the party, 
except that the other gentleman was not old. ' And 
now,' she said, ' there is a lady come to them, and is 
beginning to talk to Mr. de Morgan and the old 
gentleman, and Mr. de Morgan is pointing at you 
and the old gentleman is looking at me.' About the 
time indicated I happened to be talking to my host 
about Mesmerism, and having mentioned what my 
wife was doing, or said she was doing with the little 
girl, he said, ' Oh, my wife must hear this,' and 
called her, and she came up and joined us in the 
manner described. The girl then proceeded to 
describe the room : stated that there were two pianos 
in it. There was one [piano], and an ornamental 
sideboard, not much unlike a pianoforte to the daugh- 
ter of a poor charwoman. That there were two kinds 
of curtains, white and red, and curiously looped up 
(all true to the letter), and that there were wine 
and water and biscuits on the table. Now my wife, 
knowing that we had dined at half-past six, and 
thinking it impossible that anything but coffee could 
be on the table, said, ' You must mean coffee.' The 



CLAIRVOYANCE 277 

girl persisted, ' Wine, water, and biscuits.' My 
wife, still persuaded that it must be coffee, tried in 
every way to lead her witness, and make her say 
coffee. But still the girl persisted, ' Wine, water, 
and biscuits,' which was literally true, if not being 
what people talk of under the name of a glass of 
wine and a biscuit, which means sandwiches, cake, 
etc., but strictly wine, water, and biscuits. 

" Now all this taking place at twenty minutes 
after ten was told to me at a quarter to eleven. 
When I heard that I was to have such an account 
given I only said, ' Tell me all of it, and I will not 
say one word ; ' and I assure you that during the 
narration I took the most especial care not to utter 
one syllable. For instance, when the wine and water 
and biscuits came up, my wife, perfectly satisfied 
that it must have been coffee, told me how the girl 
persisted, and enlarged upon it as a failure, giv- 
ing parallel instances of cases in which the clairvoy- 
ants had been right in all things but one. All this 
I heard without any interruption. Now that the 
things happened to me as I have described at twenty 
minutes after ten, and were described to me as above 
at a quarter to eleven, I could make oath. The cur- 
tains I ascertained next day, for I had not noticed 
them. When my wife came to see the room she in- 
stantly recognized a door, which she had forgotten 
in her narrative. 

" All this is no secret. You may tell whom you 
like, and give my name. What do you make of it? 
Will the never-failing doctrine of coincidence ex- 
plain it? " 



278 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Mr. Podmore quotes also a letter of Professor 
Gregory, of Edinburgh. Professor Gregory had 
paid a visit to a friend in a town some thirty miles 
from Edinburgh, and there met a lady who had been 
twice mesmerized by this friend and who was not 
known to Professor Gregory. She apparently had 
some clairvoyant powers and described Professor 
Gregory's house in Edinburgh so accurately that he 
was moved to the experiment which he describes in 
the following letter: 

" I now asked her to go to Greenock, forty or 
fifty miles from where we were (Edinburgh was 
nearly thirty miles distant), and to visit my son, 
who resides there with a friend. She soon found him, 
and described him accurately, being much interested 
in the boy, whom she had never seen nor heard of. 
She saw him, she said, playing in a field outside of 
a small garden in which stood the cottage, at some 
distance from the town, on a rising ground. He was 
playing with a dog. I knew there was a dog, but had 
no idea of what kind, so I asked her. She said it 
was large, but young Newfoundland, black, with one 
or two white spots. It was very fond of the boy and 
played with him. * Oh,' she cried, suddenly, ' it has 
jumped up and knocked off his cap.' She saw in the 
garden a gentleman reading a book and looking on. 
He was not old, but had white hair, while his eye- 
brows and whiskers were black. She took him for a 
clergyman, but said he was not of the Established 
Church, nor Episcopalian, but a Presbyterian dis- 
senter. (He is, in fact, a clergyman of the highly 
respectable Cameronian body, who, as is well known, 



CLAIRVOYANCE ^7& 

are Presbyterians, and adhere to the covenant.) Be- 
ing asked to enter the cottage, she did so, and 
described the sitting-room. In the kitchen she saw 
a young maid servant preparing dinner, for which 
meal a leg of mutton was roasting at the fire, but 
not quite ready. She also saw another elderly fe- 
male. On looking again for the boy, she saw him 
playing with the dog in front of the door, while the 
gentleman stood in the porch and looked on. Then 
she saw the boy run upstairs to the kitchen, which 
she observed with surprise was on the upper floor 
of the cottage (which it is), and receive something 
to eat from the servant, she thought a potato. 

" I immediately wrote all these details down and 
sent them to the gentleman, whose answer assured 
me that all, down to the minutest, were exact, save 
that the boy did not get a potato, but a small biscuit 
from the cook. The dog was what she described; 
it did knock off the boy's cap at the time and in 
the place mentioned; he was himself in the garden 
with a book looking on; there was a leg of mutton 
roasting and not quite ready; there was an elderly 
female in the kitchen at that time, although not of 
the household. Every one of which facts was en- 
tirely unknown to me, and could not, therefore, have 
been perceived by thought-reading, although, had 
they been so, as I have already stated, this would 
not have been less wonderful, but only a different 
phenomenon." 

Mr. Podmore narrates a well-supported case in 
which a clairvoyant was sought to find the sum of 650 
pounds of money sent to the bank by post and that 



280 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

had disappeared. The clairvoyant, the envelope being 
put into her hand, said that the two bank-notes and 
a bill of exchange were handed in at the counter and 
that they would be found in an envelope with other 
papers, in an inner room at the bank. They were 
found amongst some old circulars on the mantelpiece 
in the manager's private room. The term " private 
room " might suggest a room outside the bank and 
so defeat the importance of the phenomenon, but 
evidently Mr. Podmore means the manager's private 
room in the bank, and even then the coincidence is 
not accurate enough to treat it so seriously as a case 
of possible clairvoyance, though Mr. Podmore does 
not exactly do this. He recognizes its defects. 

Professor Barrett, of Dublin, reports an experi- 
ment by a friend which has a point of interest, espe- 
cially as many of the phenomena reported as clair- 
voyance in the early history of psychic research, 
turned out to be most probably mind-reading. It 
was found on investigation in many instances that 
the operator in the mesmeric experiment had to know 
the facts before they could be told by the subject. 
But the present instance quoted by Mr. Barrett 
shows this was not necessary in this particular case. 

" A lady sub j ect has often told us the time by 
a gold hunting watch, which was put in a box after 
the hands were altered to any extent by the keyless 
arrangement, so that no one knew their position. 
I remember one instance with her. There were some 
friends in the room looking on. The hands of the 
watch were twisted round promiscuously ; it was 
then put in a box and the closed box put in her hand. 



CLAIRVOYANCE ^81 

She at once said what o'clock it was. My father 
opened the watch to see if she was right, but found 
to his astonishment that she was wrong. He told 
her so, and gave her the watch to try again. She 
at once said she was right. He told her to look 
again, but she got crusty and refused to look for 
some time. He pressed her to look once more. She 
still said she was right, but that it was now a minute 
past the time she first said. My father opened the 
watch to show those present the mistake she made, 
but found that she was perfectly right, that he had 
made a mistake himself. In that instance the 
thoughts of the mesmerizer were against her." 

Professor Charles Richet, of the Physiological 
Institute in Paris, later in the history of the Society's 
work performed two series of experiments in clair- 
voyance with the same subject that Drs. Gibert and 
Pierre Janet had in their experiments in telepathic 
hypnotism. The first series consisted of sixty-eight 
trials at telling cards enclosed in an envelope which 
would not permit the transmission of light through 
it. His scientific reputation will give us confidence 
in his judgment as to the conditions under which 
fraud was excluded, and so will the results. Hence 
I shall not detail the manner of conducting the ex- 
periments. In the sixty-eight experiments he found 
the successes far beyond what chance could explain. 
The second series he thought not beyond this view, 
and they did not involve as careful precautions as 
the first series. I shall not quote results at length. 
It suffices to state that a man of his character was 
not above experimenting under very adverse circum- 



282 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

stances and that he thought there was reason to 
beheve that chance did not account for the coinci- 
dences in one series. As for myself I think that 
experiments with cards are useful only for mathemat- 
ical measurements of chances, while other types of 
coincidence will more easily overcome the objection 
from chance and guessing. 

Drs. Dufay and Azam, French physicians, the 
former in Blois and afterward a Senator of France, 
give some instances. The papers from which the 
article in the Proceedings of the Society for Psy- 
chical Research was translated were read before 
The Society for Physiological Psychology (Societe 
de Psychologic Physiologique) and published in their 
publications. Dr. Dufay reports the following ex- 
periment in which his friend, Dr. Girault, took part. 

" In order that there should be no suspicion of a 
prearranged scene between him and his servant. Dr. 
Girault had promised to get me to arrange the 
programme of the seance — the wrapping up, for 
instance, of certain packets so as to disguise the 
nature of their contents, which contents Dr. Girault 
himself was not to know. These little packets were 
to be given to the somnambulist, who was to find out 
what was inside them. Thus the matter was settled 
and the day fixed. 

" I had already put aside for the purpose a few 
objects, not of common use, in order that chance 
should not too greatly assist our clairvoyante, when 
I received a letter from Algiers, from the com- 
mander of an infantry battalion, whom I had known 
in the garrison at Blois. He related to me several 



CLAIRVOYANCE 283 

episodes of his life in the desert, and especially spoke 
of his health, which had been very much tried. He 
had been sleeping under canvas during the rains, 
and this had resulted in violent dysentery, both in 
his case and in that of the majority of his comrades. 

" I placed this letter in an envelope without ad- 
dress or postmark, and carefully stuck down the 
edges ; then I put the whole thing into a second 
envelope of a dark color, and closed it in like manner. 

" On the day appointed I arrived a little late at 
Madame D.'s. Marie was already asleep, and was 
thus unaware of my presence, merely knowing that 
I was to be there. The ten or twelve people assem- 
bled in the room were simply stupefied by what they 
had just seen; the somnambulist having correctly 
discerned the contents of several packets, which they 
had prepared in the way I had prepared mine. But 
I left my own in my pocket, so as to avoid monotony 
in the experiments, only slipping my letter into the 
hand of a lady present, and intimating by a sign 
that it was to be passed on to Dr. Girault. He 
received it without knowing that it came from me, 
and placed it between Marie's hands. 

" I did not notice whether her eyes were open or 
shut, but, as will be readily understood, that is a 
matter of no importance in such a case. 

" ' What have you got in your hand.'^ ' asked Dr. 
Girault. 

" ' A letter.' 

" ' To whom is it addressed ^ ' 

" ' To Dr. Duf ay.' 
' By whom.'* ' 



« 



HMH 



284 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" ' A military gentleman whom I do not know.' 

" ' And what does this military gentleman speak 
of in this letter? ' 

" ' He is ill. He speaks of illness.' " 

The somnambulist was then sent on a tour of 
travelling clairvoyance to visit and report on this 
military gentleman, and did so, but nothing is said 
about the success. As to the coincidences in what I 
have quoted the reader can decide for himself, and 
the authority from which the facts come and the 
apparent cautions taken to make the experiment an 
evidential one speak also for themselves. With the 
explanation, telepathic or clairvoyant, I am not yet 
concerned. But it must be noticed that Dr. Girault 
did not know the contents of the letter and the som- 
nambulist was supposed to be in rapport with him. 
Whether the phenomena were due to chance or telep- 
athy from Dr. Dufay's mind may be conjectured by 
those interested in that interpretation. 

Another experiment with the same subject by Dr. 
Dufay has some better incidents in it, one especially, 
as the narrative shows. Owing to one circumstance 
which the sceptic has a right to know, namely, the 
proximity of the subject to the suicide that occurred 
in the same prison, the story must be given entire. 

" It is in the prison of Blois that we next encoun- 
ter Marie, under circumstances which I have already 
made known. Owing to judicial formalities, she was 
not set at liberty the same day that her innocence 
had been proved. 

" The following day I was sent for very early, on 
account of a suicide which had just taken place. A 



CLAIRVOYANCE 285 

prisoner, accused of assassination, had strangled him- 
self with his neck-handkerchief, one end of which 
he had fastened to the foot of his bed, which was 
fixed to the floor. Laid prone on the flags of the 
cell, he had had the courage to push himself back- 
wards with his hands, until the slip-knot in the hand- 
kerchief drew up and caused strangulation. The 
body was already cold when I arrived, at the same 
time as the procurator and the examining magistrate. 

" The procurator, to whom the magistrate had re- 
lated the somnambulic scene of the preceding day, 
expressed a desire to see Marie, and I proposed to 
him to take advantage of what had just taken place 
to question the girl as to the criminal who had thus 
executed justice on himself. The magistrates eagerly 
accepted my proposition. I cut off^ a piece of the 
handkerchief and wrapped it up in several sheets of 
paper, which I then tied firmly. 

" Arrived at the women's quarters, — they had 
just left the dormitory, — we begged the sister to 
lend us her room; I signed to Marie to follow us, 
without saying a word to her, and put her to sleep 
by merely placing my hand on her forehead. Then 
I drew the packet from my pocket and put it between 
her hands. 

" At that moment the poor girl started on her seat 
and flung the packet from her with horror, angrily 
crying out that she would not ' touch that.' Now 
it is well known that suicides in prisons are kept 
secret as long as possible ; in the building nothing had 
as yet transpired as to the tragedy which had taken 
place; even the sister herself was ignorant of it. 



286 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" ' What do you think that this paper contains ? ' 
I asked when calm had been partially restored. 

" ' It is something that has been used to kill a 
man.' 

" ' A knife, perhaps ; or a pistol? ' 

" ' No, no, a string. ... I see ... I see . . . 
it is a neck-handkerchief ... he has hanged him- 
self . . . But make that gentleman sit down, who 
is standing beliind me, he is trembling so that his 
limbs cannot support him.' (This was one of the 
magistrates, who was so overcome with what he saw, 
that he was, in fact, trembling in every limb.) 

" ' Can you tell me when this took place? ' 

" ' Why, here, you know very well. ... It is a 
prisoner.' 

" ' And why was he in prison ? ' 

" ' For having assassinated a man who had asked 
to get up in his cart.' 

"'How did he kill him?' 

" ' By striking blows with his gov£tJ* 

" This is the name used in Loir et Cher for a sort 
of hatchet with a short handle, a broad, long blade 
turned over at the end like a parrot's beak. It is 
very much used in this country, especially by coopers 
and woodmen. In fact it was a gouet that I had 
suggested in my medico-legal report, as being the 
instrument probably used by the murderer. 

" So far Marie's replies had taught us nothing 
that we did not know before. At this moment the 
examining magistrate drew me apart, and whispered 
in my ear that the gouet had not been found. 

" ' What has been done with this gouet? ' I asked. 



CLAIRVOYANCE ^87 

"'What has been done? . . . wait ... it was 
thrown into a pool. ... I can see it quite well at 
the bottom of the water.' 

" And she described the place where the pool was 
situated, with sufficient exactness to permit of a 
search, which was made the same day in the presence 
of a superintendent of police, and resulted in the 
discovery of the instrument of crime." 

Whatever we may think of the possibility of pre- 
vious knowledge about the suicide, — which Dr. Du- 
f ay seems not to suppose, — this hypothesis can 
hardly apply to the finding of the gouet. Neither 
does telepathy apply to this last, whatever we 
think about the discovery of the contents of the 
packet. 

The instances which I have quoted are experi- 
mental ones, and I come now to spontaneous illus- 
trations of at least apparent clairvoyance. Experi- 
ment determines the conditions which may exclude 
fraud, but it cannot always be assured that it can 
obtain the desired phenomena or evidence. Sponta- 
neous phenomena may exclude the first objection 
which experiment suggests, though it may not so 
easily eliminate chance and recrudescent memories. 
But Dr. Dufay reports some instances which have 
all the value of experiments while they are entirely 
spontaneous. He had them from M. Badaire, who 
had been director at the Normal School, first at 
Gueret and then at Blois, and they were under the 
observation of Dr. Cressant, the medical officer who 
wrote out the report. The subject of the phenomena 
was a young boy by the name of Janicaud, who was 



S88 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

afflicted with somnambulism or sleep-walking. This 
was so bad that he had to be watched for his safet}^, 
as he would get up and wander about out-of-doors. 
On one of these occasions the following incident took 
place, and was followed by similar ones. 

" One evening about 11 o'clock, Janicaud, having 
escaped from the dormitory, knocked at the door 
of my bedroom. 

" ' I have just arrived from Vendome,' he said, 
(probably about thirty miles distant on the map), 
' and have come to give you the news of your family. 
M. and Mme. Arnault are well, and your little son 
has four teeth.' 

" ' As you have seen Vendome, could you go back 
again and tell me where they are at present .^^ ' 

" ' Wait. ... I am there. . . . They are sleep- 
ing in a room on the first floor ; their bed is at the 
farther end of the room, to the left. The nurse's bed 
is to the right, and Henry's cradle close to it.' 

" The description of the room and the position of 
the beds were perfectly exact, and the following day 
I received a letter from my father-in-law telHng me 
that my child had cut his fourth tooth. 

*' A few days later, Janicaud came to me at about 
the same time, telHng me that he had again come 
from Vendome, and that an accident had happened 
to the child during the day. My wife, being much 
startled, anxiously inquired what the accident was. 

" ' Oh ! do not be frightened, madame, reassure 
yourself, there will be no serious consequences, what- 
ever the doctor, who is now with the child, may think. 
If I had known that I should have caused you so 



CLAIRVOYANCE 289 

much alarm, I should not have spoken of it. It will 
be nothing.' 

" The next morning I wrote to my father-in-law 
to tell him what Janicaud had said, and begged for 
news of the child by return of post. The answer 
was that he was perfectly well, and that no accident 
had taken place. 

" But in the month of September, when I went 
home for the holidays, I learnt the whole truth, 
which my father-in-law, on the advice of the doctor, 
had hidden from me. He told me that at the time 
when Janicaud came to tell me that an accident had 
happened, the doctor did not expect the child to live 
through the night. During the day the nurse, hav- 
ing got hold of the key to the cellar, had become 
completely intoxicated, and the child having been fed 
by her when in this condition, was seized with violent 
sickness, which endangered his life for several days. 

" One night Janicaud suddenly jumped up in bed, 
and turning to one of his companions said: 

" ' See, Roullet, how careless you are. I certainly 
told you to shut the door of the bookbinding shop, 
but jou did not do it, and a cat, in eating the paste, 
has just knocked over the dish, which is broken into 
five pieces.' 

" Some one went down at once to the workshop, 
and it was found that what the somnambulist had 
said was perfectly correct. 

" The following night he related how he saw on 
the Gleny road the body of a man, who had been 
drowned while bathing in the Creuse, and that he 
was being brought to Gueret in a carriage. Next 



S90 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

day I made inquiries and heard that an inhabitant 
of the town had really been drowned the previous day 
at Gleny, and that his body had been brought to 
Gueret during the night. But nobody in the house, 
not even in the town [Blois], had known of the acci- 
dent the day before." 

These phenomena are capricious enough, and one 
cannot help wondering why a power so far-reaching 
in its acquisition of knowledge could not find some- 
thing better to do than watching a cat break a dish 
of paste. But science cannot at present stop its 
inquiries because the larger secrets of the cosmos 
are not revealed in these sporadic facts. Its duty 
is to accept the perplexity and wait for further 
developments. 

Dr. Alfred Backman, of Kalmar, Sweden, reports 
a number of experiments that are attested by various 
witnesses. The whole chapter might be taken up 
with them. Some were successful and others not so, 
while some were partly successful. I shall quote but 
one of them, however, as it is brief and clear, no 
explanations being required. 

" Sub-Lieutenant Werner had lost a little silver 
revolver, about 3 cm. long, which he valued very 
much. He lost it in a sandy field, and eight soldiers 
searched for it in vain for half a day. Some days 
afterward I hypnotized Anna Samuelsson and went 
with her, still asleep, to the field, where I told her to 
search for the revolver. I then asked if she could 
tell me whether I should succeed in finding it. 
' Yes,' she answered, she saw Lieutenant wearing it 
again. 



CLAIRVOYANCE ^91 

'' Next day I suggested to another young patient, 
named Cecilia, that when she went away from the 
mihtary hospital, where we then were, she should 
go to the spot where the revolver was lying, take 
it out of the sand, and give it to me the following 
day. 

" When she came to me on the following day, she 
actually brought the revolver with her. Her mother 
told me that when Cecilia went away from the hos- 
pital, she walked straight to a very sandy part of the 
field (which I afterwards fomid was the same place 
that Anna went to), removed a little sand and found 
the revolver, which is now again worn by its owner." 

Mrs. Sidgwick, wife of Professor Henry Sidgwick, 
of Cambridge University, England, has a long arti- 
cle in the Proceedings of the Society, which collects 
a large mass of incidents that are interpreted as bear- 
ing upon the problem of clairvoyance. It is im- 
possible to quote from it at length, as its material 
would make several chapters. I can only abbreviate 
its matter and import and refer readers, who want 
to ascertain whether it has scientific value, to the 
record itself. An interesting case comes from a 
physician in Russia. It has value because the phy- 
sician was not a believer in anything supernormal, 
and reports this as his only experience of the kind. 
It was a Dr. Golinski, of Krementchug. 

" I am in the habit of dining at about 3 o'clock 
in the afternoon, and of sleeping for an hour and 
a half after the meal. In July, 1888, I lay down 
on a sofa as usual, and went to sleep about 3.30. I 
dreamt that the door-bell rang, and that I had 



292 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the usual rathe? disagreeable sensation that I must 
get up and go to some sick person. Then I found 
myself transported directly into a little room with 
dark hangings. To the right of the door leading 
into the room is a chest of drawers, and on this I see 
a little paraffin lamp of a special pattern. I am 
keenly interested in the shape of this little lamp, 
different from any it has previously happened to 
me to see. To the left of the door I see a bed, on 
which lies a woman suffering from severe hemor- 
rhage. I do not know how I come to know that she 
has a hemorrhage, but I know it. I examine her, 
but rather to satisfy my conscience than for any 
other reason, as I know beforehand how things are, 
although no one speaks to me. Afterwards I dream 
vaguely of medical assistance which I give, and then 
I awake in an unaccustomed manner. Generally I 
awake slowly, and remain for some minutes in a 
drowsy state, but this time I awoke almost with a 
start, as if some one had awakened me. As I awoke 
I heard a clock strike the half -hour. I asked myself, 
' What half -hour is it then ? ' and looking at my 
watch I saw it was half -past four. 

" I got up, smoked a cigarette, and walked up and 
down my room in a state of excitement, thinking 
over the dream I had just had. It was rather a 
long time since I had had a case of hemorrhage of 
any sort among my clients, and I wondered what 
could have suggested this dream. 

" About ten minutes after I awoke the door-bell 
rang, and I was summoned to a patient. Entering 
the bedroom I was astonished, for I recognized the 



CLAIRVOYANCE 293 

room of which I had just dreamt. The patient was 
a sick woman, and what struck me especially was the 
paraffin lamp placed on the chest of drawers exactly 
in the same place as in my dream, and of the same 
pattern, which I had never seen before. My aston- 
ishment was so great that I, so to speak, lost the 
clear distinction between the past dream and the pres- 
ent reahty, and, approaching the sick woman's bed, 
said affirmatively, ' You have a hemorrhage 1 ' only 
recovering myself when the patient replied, ' Yes, 
but how do you know it ? ' 

" Struck with the strange coincidence between my 
dream and what I saw, I asked the patient when she 
had decided to send for me. She told me that she 
had been imwell since the morning. About 1 p. m. 
a slight hemorrhage commenced and some pain, but 
she paid no attention to it. The hemorrhage became 
severe after 2 o'clock, and the patient began to grow 
anxious. Her husband not being at home she did 
not know what to do, and lay down, thinking it would 
pass. Between 3 and 4 o'clock she was still unde- 
cided and in great anxiety. About 4.30 she decided 
to send for me. The distance between my house 
and that of the patient is twenty minutes' walk. 

" I only know her from having attended her in 
an illness some time before, and knew nothing of her 
present state of health. 

" In a general way I seldom dream, and this is 
the only dream I ever had which I have always re- 
membered, on account of its veridical character." 

The incidents in this case seem to be inattributable 
to chance coincidence, and being reported by a rep- 



294 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

utable physician who was sceptical, have some evi- 
dential value for the supernormal of the clairvoyant 
type. 

The next instance is the experience of Mrs. Alfred 
Wedgwood, the daughter-in-law of Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood, who was an English savant of some repu- 
tation and the brother-in-law of Charles Darwin. 
The narrative is given in her own language. 

" I spent the Christmas holidays with my father- 
in-law in Queen Anne Street, and in the beginning 
of January I had a remarkably vivid dream, which 
I told to him next morning at breakfast. 

" I dreamt I went to a strange house, standing at 
the comer of a street. When I reached the top of 
the stairs I noticed a window opposite with a little 
colored glass, short muslin blinds running on a brass 
rod. The top of the ceiling had a window veiled 
by gathered muslin. There were two small shrubs 
on a httle table. The drawing-room had a bow- 
window, with the same blinds ; the library had a 
polished floor, with the same blinds. 

" As I was going to a child's party at a cousin's, 
whose house I had never seen, I told my father-in- 
law I thought that that would prove to be the house. 

" On January 10th, I went with my little boy to 
the party, and by mistake gave the driver a wrong 
number. When he stopped at No. 20, I had mis- 
givings about the house, and remarked to the cab- 
man that it was not a corner house. The servant 
could not tell me where Mrs. H. lived, and had not 
a blue-book. Then I thought of my dream, and as 
a last resource I walked down the street looking up 



CLAIRVOYANCE 295 

for the pecuKar blinds I had observed in my dream. 
These I met with at No. 50, a comer house, and 
knocking at the door, was reheved to find that it 
was the house of which I was in search. 

" On going up-stairs the room and windows cor- 
responded exactly with what I had seen in my dream, 
and the same little shrubs in their pots were stand- 
ing on the landing. The window in which I had 
seen the colored glass was hidden by the blind being 
drawn down, but I learnt, on inquiry, that it was 
really there." 

Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood confirms these state- 
ments and that inquiries were made at the house 
mentioned to ascertain the truth of incidents not 
previously known. He states that his daughter-in- 
law told him of the dream the morning after it oc- 
curred. 

A long case is quoted as coming from Mr. William 
Boyd, a Fellow of the Royal Society. It represents 
the alleged clairvoyant knowledge of incidents tak- 
ing place on the sea at a great distance, such as the 
dressing of the hand of a mate by the surgeon of 
the ship, accompanied with the vision that the mate 
had lost some of his fingers, followed by other spe- 
cific incidents. The story was confirmed on the ar- 
rival of the ship in port. The incident is too old 
to quote in detail, but the authority for it is un- 
usually good. 

The next instance is reported by a Mr. A. W. 
Dobbie, an Associate of the Society for Psychical 
Research, and one who had practised the use of hyp- 
nosis. He kept a detailed account of his experi- 



296 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

merits, and reported them to the Society, and seems to 
have had the entire confidence of the Council. I 
quote the case as reported. 

" Up to the present time this has been the most 
interesting case I have had. 

" In the first instance I mesmerized [Miss ] 

as an experiment whilst I was endeavoring to mes- 
merize several others. I found an easy subject. I 
afterwards had occasion to mesmerize her with a 
view of relieving her from rheumatic pains and cur- 
ing her sore throat, whether I put her into the mes- 
meric sleep or not. As with several other patients, 
I can entirely remove all sensation of feeling from 
her limbs, so that she can be severely pricked with 
a needle without experiencing the slightest incon- 
venience. About the fifth time I mesmerized her it 
suddenly occurred to me to test her clairvoyant pow- 
ers, and I was delighted to find that she developed 
this wonderful faculty. 

" The following is a verbatim account of the sec- 
ond time I tested her powers in this respect, April 
12th, 1884. There were four persons present during 
the seance. One of the company wrote down the 
replies as they were spoken. 

" Her father was at the time over fifty miles away, 
but we did not know exaetly where, so I questioned 
her as follows : ' Can you find your father at the 
present moment .^^ ' At first she replied that she could 
not see him, but in a minute or two, she said, ' Oh, 
yes, now I can see him, Mr. Dobbie.' ' Where is 
he? ' ' Sitting at a large table in a large room, and 
there are a lot of people going in and out.' ' What 



CLAIRVOYANCE 297 

is he doing ? ' ' Writing a letter, and there is a book 
in front of him.' ' Who is he writing to ? ' ' To the 
newspaper.' Here she paused, and laughingly said, 
' Well, I declare, he is writing to the A. B.' [naming 
a newspaper] . ' You said there was a book there. 
Can you tell what book it is .^^ ' ' It has gilt letters 
on it.' ' Can you read them, or tell me the name of 
the author ? ' She read or pronounced slowly, ' W. 
L. W.' [giving the full surname of the author]. 
She answered several minor questions re the furni- 
ture in the room, and I then said to her, ' Is it any 
effort or trouble to you to travel in this way ? ' ' Yes, 
a little; I have to think.' 

" I now stood behind her, holding a half-crown In 
my hand, and asked her if she could tell what I had 
in my hand, to which she replied, ' It is a shilHng.' 
It seemed as though she could see what was happen- 
ing miles away easier than she could see what was 
going on in the room. 

" Her father returned home nearly a week after- 
wards, and was perfectly astounded when told by 
his wife and family what he had been doing on that 
particular evening, and although previous to that 
date he was a thorough sceptic as to clairvoyance, 
he frankly admitted that my clairvoyant was per- 
fectly correct in every particular. He also informed 
us that the book referred to was a new one which 
he had purchased after he had left his home, so that 
there was no possibility of his daughter guessing 
that he had the book before him. I may add that 
the letter in due course appeared in the paper; and 
I saw and handled the book." 



298 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Mr. Dobbie reports several other similar cases. 
One incident comes from the Bishop of Algowa, 
and a number of experiments by Dr. Wiltse, who 
was a member of the Society. But I shall close these 
incidents by one in Mr. Myers' collection in the same 
tenor. It came to the attention of the Society 
through Dr. Minot J. Savage, and was investigated 
and reported in the Proceedings in great detail. It 
is corroborated by some twenty or twenty-five wit- 
nesses. 

Two boys by the name of Mason, whose father 
was dead, started to the station to meet their mother 
and were never afterward seen alive. When the 
mother returned she supposed the boys would soon 
be home. This was on Friday. The stepfather 
was away from home. The next day, Saturday, 
friends of the family sought for them in Boston, 
but could not find them. It was March and no one 
seemed to have thought it probable that the boys 
would go to the lake that was near. But to quiet 
the mother's anxiety, some men agreed to fire some 
cannon over the lake to raise the bodies if there. 
The lake was also dragged, but nothing of the boys 
was found. In despair and in spite of the fact that 
the mother was not a believer in Spiritualism, she 
suggested that some one go to Boston and consult 
a clairvoyant, and this was finally decided upon, a 
friend agreeing to do this who had never seen a 
medium before. The following is the account of 
what occurred, in the language of the lady who went 
to see the clairvoyant. 

" I arrived in Boston at 12 o'clock. I went, as 



CLAIRVOYANCE 299 

I had been told to do, to the Banner of Light office, 
and asked there, as a stranger, if they could direct 
me to some rehable clairvoyant. They directed me 
to some one on or near Court Street. I found the 
woman engaged. The gentleman who answered the 
bell-pull directed me to a clairvoyant on Dix Place. 
When I arrived at Dix Place I found this woman 
also engaged, but she directed me to a Mrs. York, 
on Washington Street. It was about three o'clock. 
A sitter was leaving as I rang the bell. Mrs. York 
opened the door herself. When I told her my er- 
rand, she told me she could not see me till the next 
day, but on my saying the next day would be too 
late, she told me to walk into her parlor, and she 
would go out and take a walk, and on her return 
would see me. These were the only words she ad- 
dressed to me, and I am sure she knew nothing of 
me whatever, where I came from, or what my er- 
rand was about. I spoke no words with her further 
than those I have already stated, neither had I ever 
heard of Mrs. York before, and she knew no one 
in N. She was gone about fifteen minutes, when 
she came into the room, and going to the fireplace at 
once, and with her back to me, and without my 
speaking one word, she said, ' They went east before 
they went west.' (The railroad station is east 
from the house, in which their mother lived, and 
the lake west. ) She then said, * They saw the fire, 
and so went to the water.' (It was afterwards found 
that on this day, Friday afternoon, some men were 
burning brush near the lake; that was what at- 
tracted them up there.) She then went on to de- 



300 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

scribe the boat-house, with a hole in the side of the 
boat-house. She then said, ' They went in through 
this hole in the side.' She described the boat, which 
she said was a ' narrow boat, painted black,* and 
said, ' Oh dear, it was never intended that but one 
person should go into it at a time.' She told of their 
pulling out a httle way, the younger brother falling 
into the water first, and the older brother trying to 
save him, and also said, ' The place where they are 
is muddy, and they could not come to the surface. 
Why,' said she, ' it is not the main lake they are 
in, but the shallow point which connects the main 
lake, and they are near the shore, and if it was not 
this time of the year (March) you could almost 
walk in and pick them up.' She told of the citizens' 
interest in trying to find them, and said, ' They will 
not find them; they go too far from the shore; 
they are on the left of the boat-house, a few feet 
from the land.' Then I said, ' If they are in the 
water, they will be found before I can reach home.' 
She said, ' No, they will not be found before you get 
there; you will have to go and tell them where 
they are, and then they will be found within five 
minutes after you reach the lake.* She made me 
promise to go with them to the lake. She said, 
' They are very near together ; after finding one 
you will quickly find the other.' I reached Natick 
at five o'clock. There was a crowd at the station. 
When I got out on to the platform, some gentlemen 
said to me, ' Mrs. D., what did the clairvoyant tell 
you.^^ ' I answered, ' Haven't you found them yet.^^ ' 
They said no, and then I told them what Mrs. York 



\ 



CLAIRVOYANCE 301 

had said, and went with them to the lake. In look- 
ing into the boat-house it was found that the long, 
narrow boat owned by Mr. Benning Hall, and 
painted, as she had said, all in black, was missing; 
this boat, as she had said, ' was to hold one man, 
and was unsafe occupied by two persons.' (I did 
not know at the time of my sitting with Mrs. York 
that Mr. Benning Hall was the owner of such a 
boat, or that the boat-house was used to shelter a 
boat of this description. I had never seen such a 
boat owned by any one ; so this part she did not 
reach from my mind.) And this boat was found in 
a cove some distance from the boat-house, a few days 
after. Neither did I know of the ' hole ' in the 
boat-house until I reached the lake on this afternoon. 
Finding that what she said of the boat and the hole 
in the boat-house was true, I began to think the rest 
might be true also ; but no one in the crowd, so far 
as I know, did place any confidence in her statement. 
I stood on the shore and two boats put off with 
men holding grappling-irons. I was able to tell 
them how to direct their course. Three or four 
strokes of the oars and the elder brother of the boys 
who were missing, and who was holding one of the 
grappling-irons, exclaimed, ' I have hold of some- 
thing.' The men stopped rowing, and he raised the 
body of the largest boy above the water. In taking 
the body into the boat, the boat moved a few lengths. 
They were told to go to the same place where the 
eldest had been found, and almost immediately 
brought up the other body. It was not ten minutes 
after reaching the lake that the boys were found, and 



S02 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

were being taken home. As Mrs. York had said, 
they were in a muddy place; their clothing testified 
to the fact. 

" The disappearance of the boys in the manner I 
have described is known to fifty persons now living 
in Natick. I cannot say how much larger the num- 
ber is. 

" She had while in this trance, by using books on 
the table, showed me the boat-house and the shore 
so well, that any one from the description could have 
gone directly to the water and found them. 

" I asked her how she came by this information. 
She answered, ' The boys' father told me.' How 
did she know that the boys' father had been dead 
several years .f* " 

The coincidences in this narrative speak for them- 
selves and require no extended comments from me. 
It can hardly be called a case of telepathy, in the 
form in which it is told, and though we might wish 
to question the integrity of the memory of the nar- 
rator, as filling in incidents after the discovery of 
the boys, I hardly think that this hypothesis can be 
sustained any more easily than a more remarkable 
one. Possibly the after-events have affected the lan- 
guage of the incidents told by the medium, but there 
are too many independent facts in the case to apply 
a theory of illusion of memory to such a group of 
incidents. 

I shall rest from quotation at this point. When 
it comes to offering a theory of clairvoyance I can- 
not propose any that I would unquaHfiedly advocate. 
Such a thing as clairvoyance is not to be admitted 



CLAIRVOYANCE 303 

lightly, and when it is admitted, we cannot maike it 
intelligible in terms of other familiar and accepted 
laws of scientific knowledge. We have no analogies 
within the reach of either physiology or psychology 
to explain such phenomena. Telepathy has some 
points of analogy with well-known physical phe- 
nomena. We can describe the process and conditions 
of telegraphy and telephony, and they involve the 
action of a force or motion at definite points and 
their transmission, supposedly, by vibrations through 
an undulating medium. But such a thing as see- 
ing objects and events at any distance from the sub- 
ject and without the normal impressions of sense 
is a phenomenon that presents no intelligible analo- 
gies with ordinary experience, and the term can 
only appear as one to name and classify a group 
of facts and not to explain them or to indicate the 
process by which they are effected. The explanation 
must be sought in their articulation with a larger 
class of phenomena for which we can find some clue 
to their meaning, and these with the known laws 
of mental action. 

As a prehminary to the extension of the inquiries 
necessary to reduce clairvoyance to something intelh- 
gible, I may be permitted to refer to some incidents 
quoted in my previous book. Science and a Future 
Life. The reader of that work may remember that 
I quoted (pp. 184-188) a remarkable set of in- 
cidents that were evoked from the " control " of Mrs. 
Piper, who called himself a Dr. Phinuit, by the mere 
presentation of a closed box with articles in it not 
known by the sitter, nor was it known at the time 



804 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

from whom thej came. The names and incidents 
elicited, along with the right naming of the articles 
in the box, were so beyond chance that no intelligent 
man would suggest that theory to account for them. 
The sitter, a lady, did not think that the knowledge 
was acquired from spirits, as no statement to that 
effect was volunteered by the " control." But Dr. 
Richard Hodgson adds to this incident two experi- 
ments in which he had taken part with Mrs. Piper 
and in which the apparent clairvoyance of a like 
kind to that mentioned was associated with the state- 
ment that the information came from a discarnate 
spirit and that " spirit " was correctly named, that 
is, a deceased person was named who would naturally 
have known the facts. This information, however, 
was not volunteered, but came in response to an in- 
quiry as to the source of it. 

The last case quoted shows a similar claim. I 
quoted it for this very purpose. The reader will 
notice that no trace of an explicable source of the 
information was given about the incidents associated 
with the drowned boys, until the clairvoyant was 
asked how she came by the information, and her 
reply was, as above, " The hoys^ father told tw^," 
and he was deceased several years. I know two other 
cases similar, where there was no trace of the source 
except in certain incidental circumstances which 
were not compatible with the knowledge of the appar- 
ent source. Persons familiar, also, with this type 
of phenomena will recognize the fact that spiritistic 
elements are generally associated with clairvoyant 
incidents. The same is apparent even in some of 



CLAIRVOYANCE 305 

the phantasms of the dead or dying. They are only 
hints, however, and we must collect much more mate- 
rial and perform many more experiments before we 
can feel assured of such a clue, and when it is found 
it may leave us still in some perplexity, though it 
gives intelligible articulation to the phenomena. 



CHAPTER IX 

PEEMONITIONS 

A premonition, as technically defined by the psy- 
chical researcher, is " a supernormal indication of 
any kind of event still in the future." The common 
term " presentiment " is often used in the same sense, 
but without any implication that it involves an ex- 
ceptional explanation. Prediction is also a similar 
term. But premonition has been adopted for techni- 
cal usage and implication of a distinction implying 
the supernormal. Whether any such a thing as 
causally determined premonitions occur or not is not 
now the question, but the definition of an alleged 
phenomenon, which shall receive that denomination, 
if it be a proved fact, just to indicate its unusual 
character. 

There are no phenomena that can so effectively 
excite scepticism and philosophic confusion as al- 
leged premonitions. If we could dismiss the alle- 
gations as we can many ill-founded impressions in 
experience we should not be troubled with any prob- 
lem, and if some well-authenticated instances of ap- 
parent intimations of the future had not been col- 
lected together we could easily apply the old argu- 
ment based on imperfect observation and illusion. 
And it would be much the same with a few isolated 

instances not involving details beyond chance and 

306 



PREMONITIONS 307 

guessing. But apparently there is a mass of evi- 
dence on hand which forbids scoffing, even though we 
ultimately discredit the claims made for premonition. 
The difficulty that any complicated premonition pre- 
sents is in the sense of fatahty that it suggests in 
the order of the world, and we have been so long 
accustomed to the idea of freedom and responsibihty 
that we naturally revolt at the claim. Besides, we 
have not yet found a means to bridge the enormous 
chasm involved between ordinary knowledge and that 
which would be required to determine a premonition. 
However this may be, it will be necessary to first 
look at the facts. 

Mr. Myers, in one of his articles on the " Sub- 
liminal Consciousness," begins it with a type of phe- 
nomena that border on those of clairvoyance, but 
are not that clearly as they appear. They are a 
borderland type that, if they open a dim vista of 
human faculty, certainly show some links between 
the normal method of acquiring knowledge and the 
more remarkable process of clairvoyance. I shall 
quote a few of his instances of this kind. The first 
is one from a man whom I have quoted before, the 
Rev. P. H. Newnham, whose experiments in telep- 
athy are classical. 

" I have on many occasions," says this gentleman, 
" throughout the last thirty-five years at least, ex- 
perienced the sensation of a soundless voice speaking 
words distinctly into my ear from the outside of 
me. Whenever this has been the case, the information 
or ad\dce given has invariably proved correct. 

" I distinguish this phenomenon clearly from the 



308 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ordinary forms of ' presentiment.' This voice is 
distinctly something ab extra. In presentiments, if 
certain words seem to come, they come from within, 
and are (so to speak) spoken voicelessly by myself, 
just as in verbal reading to yourself. 

" I never pay any attention to these co-called 
' presentiments.' I have had plenty of them, and 
find them more often false than true. 

" But when this voice comes it never fails. 

" In July, 1858 (I believe, but it may have been 
June, 1857), I was visiting friends at Tunbridge 
Wells, and went one evening entomologizing. As 
I crossed a stile into a field, on my way to a neigh- 
boring wood, the voice distinctly said in my right 
ear, ' You'll find " Chaonia " on that oak.' (This 
was a very scarce moth, which I had never seen 
before, and which most assuredly I had never con- 
sciously thought of seeing.) There were several 
oaks in the field, but I intuitively walked up to one, 
straight to the off side of it, and there was the moth 
indicated." 

Mr. Myers quotes two similar instances whose ac- 
count is too long to repeat, and then one shorter 
instance from Dr. Richard Hodgson, Secretary of 
the American Society, that closely followed the read- 
ing of Mr. Newnham's story. This I can quote, 
and will not imply by it more than an interesting 
coincidence, though the mental state which accom- 
panies it, taken with what we know of other and more 
important supernormal phenomena, has its psycho- 
logical interest. 

"Yesterday morning (September 13th, 1895), 



\ 



PREMONITIONS 309 

just after breakfast, I was strolling alone along 
one of the garden paths of Leckhampton House, re- 
peating aloud to myself the verses of a poem. I 
became temporarily obHvious to my garden surround- 
ings, and regained my consciousness of them sud- 
denly to find myself brought to a stand, in a stoop- 
ing position, gazing intently at a five-leaved clover. 
On careful examination I found about a dozen speci- 
mens of five-leaved clover as well as several speci- 
mens of four-leaved clover, all of which probably 
came from the same root. Several years ago I was 
interested in getting extra-leaved clovers, but I have 
not for years made any active search for them, 
though occasionally my conscious attention, as I 
walked along, has been given to appearances of four- 
leaved clover which proved on examination to be de- 
ceptive. The peculiarity of yesterday's ' find ' was 
that I discovered myself, with a sort of shock, stand- 
ing still and stooping down, and afterward realized 
that a five-leaved clover was directly under my eyes. 
I plucked some of the specimens, and showed them 
at once to Mr. and Mrs. Myers, and explained how 
I had happened to find them. Clover plants were 
thickly clustered in the neighborhood, but I failed 
on looking to find any other specimens. The incident 
naturally suggests the arresting of my subliminal 
attention." 

A number of similar experiences appears in Mr. 
Myers' list and introduces his remarks on Precog- 
nition, which can include the phenomena of premoni- 
tion. But, as Dr. Hodgson's remark at the end of 
his narrative indicates, the phenomena, if we are to 



SIO ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

suppose anything more than chance coincidence, are 
due to subliminal and hyperaesthetic conditions, and 
are more nearly associated with clairvoyance than 
with premonition. They anticipate normal sensation 
of present objects or events, while premonition antici- 
pates the existence of objects and events. When the 
premonition takes place, if it occurs at all, the facts 
which it antedates are not yet born. But I quote 
the facts here as intimations either of clairvoyance 
or subliminal hyperaesthesia that may imply mental 
information anticipating and predicting future 
events from the tendencies coming within the range 
of that knowledge. I shall, therefore, turn to inci- 
dents that answer more nearly to the phenomena 
defined and that cannot in any way be explained by 
hyperaesthesia or clairvoyance. 

The following incident was reported by a gentle- 
man, and confirmed by the subject of the experience 
to the Boston Transcript, and investigated by Dr. 
Hodgson. 

" The following incident may interest some of the 
readers of the Transcript. A few weeks ago I had 
occasion to require the services of a dentist, and when 
I went to his office at the time appointed I found him 
in a very excited state of mind, caused, he told me, 
by a very strange occurrence. The office is a pleasant 
room facing the Common on Tremont Street, and in 
one corner, the farthest from the windows, the den- 
tist had a small work-bench, partitioned off from the 
rest of the room, and there had his copper vessel 
which he used when vulcanizing the rubber for the 
setting of false teeth. He had been working at a 



\ 



kX^ '"<! 



PREMONITIONS 311 

set of teeth, and was bending over the bench on which 
was the copper containing the rubber, when he heard 
a voice caUing in a quick and imperative manner 
these words : ' Run to the window, quick ! Run to 
the window, quick ! ' twice repeated. Without think- 
ing from whom the voice could have come, he at once 
ran to the window and looked out to the street below, 
when suddenly he heard a tremendous report in his 
workroom, and looking round he saw the copper 
vessel had exploded, and had been blown up through 
the plastering of the room." 

The man was alone at the time and only the marks 
of the explosion, confirmed by Dr. Hodgson person- 
ally, remained to suggest the truth of the story. It 
would, of course, take many such coincidences to in- 
timate a causal connection, but the phenomenon has 
its psychological interest on any theory. 

The next instance is a case in which a lady heard 
in a loud voice the words : " To-day, at six o'clock, 
you will die." The lady resolved not to brood over 
the uncanny experience, and went to visit a married 
sister to distract her attention from it, until the 
clock began to strike six. " As it commenced sound- 
ing, Mrs. E. said to herself, ' There, now, it's six 
o'clock, and nothing has happened,' but before the 
chime ceased blood was gushing out of both nostrils 
in a copious stream." The lady did not die, but 
recovered, having barely escaped death, according to 
the testimony of the physician. 

The instance may be one of auto-suggestion, that 
is, an effect brought on by subconscious fear in spite 



312 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

of the distraction attempted, but it has its psycho- 
logical interest nevertheless. 

A merchant who thought himself good for forty 
years more life dreamed one night that he had died, 
" yet he possessed the peculiar power of one in a 
trance — to see all that went on about him though he 
was unable to move or speak." He noted the prepa- 
rations for his burial and named the pall-bearers. 
The dream was told several persons the next morning, 
and these confirm the incident. This was January 
12th, and he died at 3 a. m. on January 13th, and the 
pall-bearers named were chosen. The coincidence, 
however, is in the death. 

The following circumstance is signed by fourteen 
persons, and a long account of it made by Dr. Sud- 
dick, of Cuba, Mo. 

" This is to certify that we, the undersigned citi- 
zens of Cuba, Mo., did, prior to the death of Mr. 
Chris. Varis, of St. James, Mo., which occurred on 
the morning of the 8th of October, 1890, hear a 
prophecy to the effect that he would die on the morn- 
ing of that day. 

" We heard that his death was foretold at a seance, 
at the house of Dr. S. T. Suddick, in the town of 
Cuba, Mo., on the night of August the 29th, or forty 
days prior to that event." 

The account of the experiment, which was one of 
table-tipping and which made the prediction, is too 
long to quote, but it made clear the prediction, and 
at the same time said the death would be in the fore- 
noon and that a telegram would be sent to the friend, 
present at the experiment, on the morning of October 



PREMONITIONS 313 

8th. There was also the announcement of the pres- 
ent death of another person whose demise was then 
unknown at the circle, but was verified in the St. 
Louis Globe Democrat the next day. 

A lady wrote to Dr. Hodgson about the death of 
her mother a little more than a month after its oc- 
currence, to say that a sealed envelope had been 
found in her private box, predicting her death about 
five years after that of her husband, who died on 
April 24th, 1888, and that her mother had often 
mentioned this to be her expectation. The mother 
died on August 20th, 1893. The contents of the 
letter found in the box were as follows: 

" Ever since the death of my husband, on the 24th 
of April, 1888, I have felt that five (5) years is, or 
will be, the limit to me of life. There has been no 
sudden expression in that way, but the knowledge 
has seemed to follow me like the knowledge of any 
other fact, — say this is Friday, and I am thinking 
of doing something in a day or two, I would just 
think, to-morrow will be Saturday and the next will 
be Sunday, then I can't do it. The thought always 
follows me, just quietly and naturally: Five years. 
Now if I should live sice years, I will destroy this, 
but if my premonition comes true, I wish this sent 
to Mr. Richard Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, 
Mass., with particulars." 

I quote one from G. J. Romanes, the English peer 
and disciple of Darwin. It has special interest be- 
cause it comes from one of the great scientific men 
of his time. Professor Romanes told Mr. Myers that 



314 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the experience and its coincidental nature made a 
deep impression upon him. 

" Towards the end of March, 1878, in the dead 
of night, while believing myself to be awake, I 
thought the door at the head of my bed was opened 
and a white figure passed along the side of the bed 
to the foot, where it faced about and showed me it 
was covered, head and all, in a shroud. Then with 
its hands it suddenly parted the shroud over the face, 
revealing between its two hands the face of my sis- 
ter, who was ill in another room. I exclaimed her 
name, whereupon the figure vanished instantly. Next 
day (and certainly on account of the shock given me 
by the above experience), I called in Sir W. Jenner, 
who said my sister had not many days to live. [She 
died, in fact, very soon afterward.] 

" I was in good health, without any grief or anx- 
iety. My sister was being attended by our family 
doctor, who did not suspect anything serious, there- 
fore I had no anxiety at all on her account, nor had 
she herself." 

This is an instance of apparition preceding death 
and during illness, and so could be classed among 
those which I quoted in a previous chapter. Perhaps 
many such cases might be regarded as premoni- 
tions. 

Mr. Haggard, of the British Consulate at Trieste, 
Austria, tells the following experience of his own, 
and it is confirmed by his wife. 

" A few months ago I had an extraordinarily vivid 
dream, and waking up repeated it to my wife at 
once. All I dreamt actually occurred about six 



PREMONITIONS 816 

weeks afterwards, the details of my dream falling 
out exactly as dreamt. 

" I dreamt that I was asked to dimier by the Ger- 
man Consul-General, and accepting, was ushered into 
a large room with trophies of East African arms 
on shields against the walls. (I have myself been a 
great deal in East Africa.) 

" After dinner I went to inspect the arms, and 
amongst them saw a beautifully gold-mounted sword 
which I pointed out to the French Vice-Consul — 
who at that moment j oined me — as having probably 
been a present from the Sultan of Zanzibar to my 
host, the German Consul-General. 

" At that moment the Russian Consul came up, too. 
He pointed out how small was the hilt of the sword 
and how impossible, in consequence, it would be for 
a European to use the weapon, and whilst talking 
he waved his arm in an excited manner over his head 
as if he was wielding the sword, and to illustrate 
what he was saying. 

" At that moment I woke up and marvelled so at 
the vividness of the dream that I woke my wife up, 
too, and told it to her. 

" About six weeks afterwards my wife and myself 
were asked to dine with the German Consul-General; 
but the dream had long been forgotten by us both. 

" We were shown into a large withdrawing-room, 
which I had never been in before, but which somehow 
seemed familiar to me. Against the walls were some 
beautiful trophies of East African arms, amongst 
which was a gold-hilted sword, a gift to my host 
from the Sultan of Zanzibar. 



316 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" To make a long story short, everything hap- 
pened exactly as I had dreamt — but I never re- 
membered the dream until the Russian Consul began 
to wave his arm over his head, when it came back 
to me like a flash. 

" Without saying a word to the Russian Consul 
and French Vice-Consul (whom I left standing before 
the trophy), I walked quickly across to my wife, 
who was standing at the entrance of a boudoir open- 
ing out of the withdrawing-room, and said to her: 
' Do you remember my dream about the Zanzibar 
arms? ' She remembered everything perfectly, and 
was a witness to its realization. On the spot we 
informed all the persons concerned of the dream, 
which naturally much interested them." 

Mrs. Haggard writes her account of the dream and 
confirms it, and both the Russian Consul and the 
German Consul-General confirm the details of the 
dream as narrated to them on the night of its ful- 
filment. The latter adds that Mr. Haggard had 
never been in his house previously. 

I have quoted this instance to recognize the ex- 
traordinary difficulty of explaining it if we assume 
it to be more than a chance coincidence. Other 
types may be easily explicable, if we have already 
ascertained a source of supernormal knowledge, but 
the combination of circumstances that is necessary 
in this case to make it reasonable involves a fore- 
knowledge beyond analogy in our present science. 

Miss X (Goodrich-Freer), whose experiments in 
crystal vision are the subject of an earlier chapter, 



PREMONITIONS 317 

is the person concerned with the following premoni- 
tion as recorded by Mr. Myers. 

" In December, 1889, I received from Miss X a 
sealed envelope containing a date. Miss X stated 
that a premonition in auditory form — a voice often 
heard before at crises, and which she had always 
trusted — had deferred to the date therein-mentioned 
the decision of a matter as to which she had been 
in great anxiety, and which she had been daily ex- 
pecting to be obliged to decide. It did not then 
appear to her likely that the decision should be so 
long deferred; nor was it essential that an actual 
meeting should take place ; but she resolved to do 
nothing either to help or hinder the fulfilment of 
the prediction. The date in question found her, in 
fact, at a distance from London (where the question 
would have to be settled), and likely to remain in 
the country. An unexpected summons from an in- 
valid relative brought her back to London, — the 
cause of the summons being the sudden illness of a 
maid. Miss X arrived in London, and an accidental 
visitor at the relative's house invited her impromptu 
to an entertainment at which she met the friend upon 
whom the matter depended — although that friend 
was previously a stranger to her hosts of that eve- 
ning. 

" Miss X then wrote me to tell me of this fact, 
and Mrs. Sidgwick and I, opening the sealed letter 
together, found that the date given therein corre- 
sponded to that on which the predicted meeting and 
decision had now actually taken place." 

Mrs. Sidgwick has a long article discussing the 



318 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

evidence for premonition, and admits that it is much 
stronger than when the first incidents apparently 
illustrating it were published. I shall quote but a 
few of the cases which she has collected, and return 
to some instances in Mr. Myers' paper. The first 
instance quoted from Mrs. Sidgwick is a dream, and 
is sustained by the testimony of two people. 

" On a Saturday night in the autumn of 1882, I 
dreamt the following: I was walking down a street 
in London when a lady in black passed me, who 
turned round to look at me. I saw she was in tears. 
The lady hurried on; I hurried after her to see 
who she was. When I came up to her I found her 
lying on the road. A number of people had col- 
lected. I said, ' Is she hurt.? ' Some said, ' She is 
dead.' Some that she was not dead. I asked who 
it was that was lying in the road. They said, ' Mrs. 
C There was some confusion and I awoke from 
my dream. As I had not heard from my friend, Mrs. 
C, of Clapham Common, for so long, I made in- 
quiries about her among my friends, about a week 
after I had the dream, and was told Mrs. C. had 
fallen over a kerb-stone that was very high, and had 
fallen into the road much hurt. She had the accident 
on Sunday evening following the Saturday night 
when I had the dream. The dream was remarkably 
clear, and I do not often dream of my acquaintances. 
I related it to my sister Jessie, a short time before 
the accident occurred to Mrs. C. My sister Jessie 
signs her name in proof that the account above is 
correct, and that I related the dream to her before 
the event." 



PREMONITIONS 319 

Tlie details in this coincidence are not told, and 
we are forced to treat it cautiously. Instances would 
have to be much better to make it probable. 

The remarkable case of Professor Brooks' son in 
Baltimore will have to be abbreviated. Professor 
Brooks was in the Baltimore Female College. The 
son had been taken ill and was on his way to re- 
covery, the physician having no fears of a fatal issue. 
But during the illness the boy stated that " a former 
teacher and friend of his, a Mr. Hall, who died about 
five months before, had appeared to him in a vision 
and told him he would die of heart trouble on 
Wednesday, December 5th, at 3 o'clock p. m." [Pre- 
diction made in preceding April.] Young Brooks 
had never had any trouble with his heart, and his 
friends to whom he made the statement were in no 
way concerned about it. Dr. Mann, his physician, 
laughed at it, and said he was certain, on the con- 
trary, he would get well. A few days before that 
time he sent some flowers to some friends, with a note 
saying : * I shall never again be able to express my 
appreciation of your kindness.' He accompanied a 
lady friend to an entertainment the afternoon of 
December 4th, spent the evening in her company, 
and received a promise that if he wrote for her the 
next afternoon she would come to say good-bye. His 
physician told the brother and mother of the youth 
that he would divert his mind from the subject by 
physical means, and on Tuesday night put a fly 
blister on his neck. 

" Wednesday morning young Brooks rose as usual, 
ate an unusually hearty breakfast, and to all appear- 



320 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ances was good for a long life. The physician left 
him without a trace of uneasiness as to his condition. 
The young man insisted that his mother should not 
stay with him, telling her ' It would kill you to see 
me die.' That he might not take the matter too much 
to heart, she did not oppose him, but consented to 
leave him, intending to return to him in the latter 
part of the afternoon. 

" While taking lunch with the family as usual at 
two o'clock he complained of feeling faint, and asked 
to be assisted to his room. After resting in the bed 
a few moments he wrote to the young lady, and in 
about twenty minutes she arrived. He died in the 
presence of the family at 3.10 o'clock. He was a 
young man of strong character, exceptionally good 
mind, and splendid physique." 

The case is exposed to objection on the ground of 
auto-suggestion, that is, to the mental effect of think- 
ing about it too persistently. But the interesting 
part of the premonition is the vision of a deceased 
friend, when the case is taken together with other 
more or less similar instances. 

I turn to instances recorded by Mr. Myers. The 
first one came under the observation and scrutiny of 
Dr. Hodgson, the American Secretary. It is one of 
a number by the same subject. 

*' I distinctly felt that a serious accident would 
happen to some person in or about the back portion 
of the residence. There would be a fearful fall of 
some elderly man. 

" Now in the house were two elderly men, but I 



PREMONITIONS 321 

foresaw that the accident would happen to neither of 
these. 

" Again and again, as we sat within our quiet 
room, did the impression of the terrible fall come 
to me, as those present clearly remember. At such 
times the horror was strong and persistent. In con- 
sequence we even talked of having a lamp constantly 
burning on the hall of the basement staircase lest 
one might make a misstep there. But I could not 
locate the place where the fall would happen. 

" In the late winter of 1887 there occurred a heavy 
rain followed by a sudden freeze. In consequence 
the rain-gutter of the rear roof became clogged with 
ice which it seemed desirable should be cleared away. 

" In order to do this a man, between sixty and 
seventy years of age, Thomas Collins by name, — the 
foreman of a number of men employed by the hus- 
band of one of us, — volunteered to remove the ice. 
It is needless to say that none of our number knew 
anything of what he was to do. 

" Accordingly Mr. Collins, a man of large expe- 
rience, caution, and intelligence, with hatchet in hand, 
mounted a ladder placed against the eaves of the 
roof. The ladder slipped as he reached the top, 
and he, with it, fell to the stone paving of the area. 
Mr. CoUins struck upon his head, causing fracture 
of the skull. He was removed to the hospital, where 
he died in a few hours without having recovered 
consciousness. 

" The first impression of foreshadowing of this 
accident was between two and three months before 
its occurrence." 



3^2 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Four other persons who heard this prediction sign 
its confirmation, so that it does not depend solely 
upon the statement of the subject of it. Whether 
it is more than a coincidence I shall not attempt 
to say, but even as that it is certainly remarkable. 
If a presentiment of an accident had occurred, its 
occurrence would have left no impression, but that 
it should be the fall of an elderly man and at the 
rear of the house indicates associated incidents of 
much interest. But a more definite one is told of the 
same subject and confirmed by as many persons. Dr. 
Anna Lukens, of New York City, heads the list of 
signers. 

" On the evening of January 2d, 1892, Mrs. H. 
M. P. made the following prediction. ' I see Dr. 
Anna Lukens receive a letter announcing a death. 
You (to Dr. A. L.) will soon hear of the death of 
some one connected with you — not very closely ; but 
the news will be something of a shock and a great 
surprise, but it is not a death that will touch you 
closely.' " 

Four persons sign this statement, and the following 
letter, dated January 14th, and written at Philadel- 
phia, was received in due time. 

" My Dear Aunt Annie, — ... Wasn't that very 
sad about Hannah Jones? Suppose thee knew she 
died on January 2d of pneumonia, and was buried 
Wednesday, the 6th." 

It is apparent that the death was not the premoni- 
tory fact, but the receipt of the letter. The case 
is interesting for its association of the coincidence 
of the death of the person with a predicted event. 



\ 



PREMONITIONS 323 

One-half of the incident belongs to the class of death 
coincidences and the other to that which I am dis- 
cussing, and it is noticed here because of its evidential 
credentials rather than because it proves an un- 
doubted premonition. It may even be disputed that 
the one premonitory incident is more than a guess 
from a subliminal recognition of the death concerned. 
But Dr. Lukens reports the following, which will 
appear more difficult to explain. 

" Mrs. H. M. P. in semi-trance. Her control, X, 
tells Mr. W. E. Ward that one of his horses (off 
horse) (a new span recently purchased) is unsafe, 
and that an accident will occur which may be very 
serious unless great care is observed. X (control) 
says ' horse will shy badly — I think going down 
hill, both horses inclined to be tricky — will try to 
run away on this occasion; better get rid of them.' 
After a few minutes' pause, X says, ' Brave, there is 
a dangerous place in your big factory, upper part 
— something broken — will fall soon, and if it does 
will kill many people. Can't see just what it is — 
but you better look after it at once.' " 

This was on May 1st. " Both predictions verified 
the following Thursday (May 5th), within a few 
hours of each other. The off horse shied badly, 
threw the carriage off on the side of the road, nearly 
upsetting it, and then both horses tried to run away. 
Owing to the good management of the coachman, no 
injury was sustained. A few hours after this acci- 
dent, a split beam, forming part of one of the heavy 
trusses supporting the roof, was discovered in exact 
locality as described by the medium. If it had fallen, 



SM ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

which it must soon have done, there would have been 
serious loss of life." 

This statement is signed by three persons, and 
certainly represents most interesting coincidences. 
Another by Miss X (Goodrich-Freer) shows what 
may be elicited by crystal-gazing in some cases. It 
is quoted by Mr. Myers, who states that he saw the 
letter mentioned. 

" A week or two ago I was visiting friends in the 
country, and was about to leave their house on a 
certain morning. ' I wonder what you will do after 
I'm gone,' I was saying. 

" For answer, one of them pulled towards me a 
piece of bright mahogany furniture brilliantly pol- 
ished, and said, ' Here is a crystal — look.' 

" ' This is the picnic you said you were all going 
to at Pin Mill, I suppose,' I said pleasantly, as a pic- 
ture appeared. ' What and where is Pin Mill.f^ 
There is no sign of a mill — it is just a grassy 
bank with some thorn-bushes beyond. Why do you 
and K. get up and go away? G. and S. stay to- 
gether and G. looks as if her back hurt her. The 
nurse is there, too, with the boy.' 

" ' I don't know in the least what Pin Mill is, but 
anyway, the nurse and child won't be there,' said my 
friend. 

" A day or two later she wrote, ' You were almost 
right about Pin Mill — there is no mill in sight. 
We sat on a bank, K. had a cramp and I had to 
take her for a walk, G. and S. were left together. 
G. had sprained her back and was in some pain, and 
the nurse and boy were there. There were no thorn- 



PREMONITIONS 325 

trees, but there were elder and blackberry bushes 
grown up high, which at a little distance looked like 
thorns.'' 

I take the next instance from Dr. Liebeault, the 
celebrated French physician who was so successful 
in the practice of hypnotism. 

" M. S. de Ch. came to consult me to-day at 
4 p. M. (January 8th, 1886) for a slight nervous 
ailment. M. de Ch. is much preoccupied by a law- 
suit, and by the incident which I proceed to recount. 

" On the 26th December, 1879, while walking in 
Paris, he saw ' Mme. Lenormand, Necromancer,' 
written on a door. Urged by thoughtless curiosity 
he entered the house, and was shown into a rather 
dark room. Mme. Lenormand came to him, and 
placed him at a table. She went out and returned, 
and then looking at the palm of one of his hands 
said, ' You will lose your father in a year from this 
day. You will soon be a soldier (he was nineteen 
years old), but not for long. You will marry young, 
have two children, and die at twenty-six.' M. de Ch. 
confided this astounding prophecy to some of his 
friends, but did not take it seriously. However, as 
his father died after a short illness on December 27th, 
1880, precisely a year from the interview, he became 
less incredulous. And when he became a soldier, for 
seven months only, married, had two children, and 
was approaching his twenty-sixth birthday, he be- 
came thoroughly alarmed, and thought he had only 
a few days to live. This was why he came to consult 
me, hoping I might enable him to avoid his fate. 
For, as the first four events had taken place, he 



326 ENIGMAS OF PSYGHICAL RESEARCH 

thought that the last would. On this and the follow- 
ing days I tried to send M. de Ch. into profound 
sleep in order to dissipate the impression that he 
would die on the 4th of February, his birthday. 
Mme. Lenormand had not named a date, but he was 
so agitated that I could not induce even the slightest 
sleep. 

" However, as it was absolutely necessary to get 
rid of his conviction, lest it should fulfil itself by 
self-suggestion, I changed my tactics and proposed 
that he should consult one of my somnambulists, an 
old man of seventy or so, nicknamed ' the prophet,' 
because he had exactly foretold his own cure of ar- 
ticular rheumatism of four years' standing, and the 
cure of his daughter, the cure of the latter resulting 
from his suggestion. M. de Ch. accepted my pro- 
posal eagerly. When put into rapport with the som- 
nambulist his first question was, ' When shall I die ? ' 
The sleeper, suspecting the state of the case, replied, 
after a pause, ' You will die . . . you will die in 
forty-one years.' The effect was marvellous; the 
young man recovered his spirits, and when the 4th of 
February passed he thought himself safe. 

" I had forgotten all this, when at the beginning 
of October I received an invitation to the funeral 
of my unfortunate patient, who had died on Sep- 
tember 30th, 1886, in his twenty-seventh year, as 
Mme. Lenormand had foretold. To prevent the sup- 
position that the whole affair was an illusion on my 
part, I keep this letter of invitation, as well as the 
record made at the time of de Ch.'s visit to me. I 
have since learnt that the unfortunate man had been 



PREMONITIONS 327 

under treatment for biliary calculi and died of peri- 
tonitis caused by an internal rupture." 

Mr. Myers quotes about sixty cases of the type 
I have selected and Mrs. Sidgwick forty-five others. 
Most of them are too long to quote, and I have 
limited myself to as trustworthy cases as can be 
chosen, and have given them in sufficient number and 
variety of incident to show why they impress the 
mind as possibly significant coincidences. It is hard 
to believe many of them due to chance, though I 
shall not quarrel with the scientific man who wishes 
still to press that possibility; for it is undoubtedly 
true that we have much more evidence to collect be- 
fore we take any dogmatic stand in favor of pre- 
monitions. The best instances which I have given 
are those associated with experiment and recorded 
near or at the time the prediction was made, and 
it would seem that some of them are incapable of 
explanation by chance. 

When it comes to offering any positive and intelli- 
gible explanation for them the first that can be said 
is that they are certainly not telepathic or clairvoy- 
ant in any of the senses defined for these terms. 
The wildest telepathy imagined does not pretend to 
do more than read present or past thoughts, and 
there is no analogy in the experiments and sponta- 
neous instances of it to suggest the use of the term 
for these phenomena, unless we propose to make it 
entirely without meaning. Whatever the process of 
forecasting events of the kind, it must transcend 
time just as clairvoyance is supposed to transcend 
space. But we have no known faculty for dealing 






328 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

with the future as memory deals with the past of our 
personal experiences. Nor would it be helpful to 
coin a new term, which would only give a new name 
to the facts. We must seek a theory that will ar- 
ticulate with the processes of normal knowledge and 
predictions. 

If we will look at man's normal habits we shall 
find a clear analogy in the anticipation of certain 
events in his experience, based on scientific knowledge. 
The astronomer can predict with perfect and mar- 
vellous accuracy the eclipse of the sun, the occulta- 
tion of a star, or the conjunction of two planets. 
The common man can do nothing of the kind. In 
the same way the tides can be predicted for diff*erent 
parts of the globe. The geologist or physicist may 
predict with tolerable certainty the action of a vol- 
cano, and sometimes an economist, with less assur- 
ance, the occurrence of a panic. We are learning 
even to make some predictions in regard to the 
weather. Many other fields illustrate at least a 
limited capacity to forecast the future of events 
beyond our control, when earlier people were wholly 
unable to anticipate the future in any respect. This 
modern capacity is due entirely to our scientific 
knowledge of nature. Long and careful observations 
have resulted in such a knowledge of the laws of 
events, their constancy and uniformity, that we can 
forecast certain facts with perfect assurance. 

Now if there is any process or reality that pos- 
sesses a wider knowledge of things we might expect 
it capable of predicting the outcome of laws we do 
not normally know. We can tell whether a spider 



PREMONITIONS 329 

is going to fall in a crevice when the spider does 
not know it, or we can see that an animal will lose 
its hf e in a collision with a train though the animal 
is wholly ignorant of its fate. A physician will 
predict the death of a patient when others would 
not suspect it. His experience and knowledge gives 
him a ground for expecting consequences which the 
uninformed cannot foresee. Likewise any intelli- 
gence placed in a position to know what our senses 
do not reveal might be able to forecast events which 
it would seem impossible, from our normal experi- 
ence, to imagine as predictable. It matters not 
whether we made that intelligence the subliminal 
mental action of the subject making the prediction 
or the intelligence of some transcendental being, if 
only this knowledge can be transmitted or communi- 
cated to the normal consciousness. 

Now there are indications of this intelligence in 
these very instances of real or alleged premonition. 
The reader will notice that a number of them are asso- 
ciated with mediumistic phenomena in some form, and 
quite a number with the phenomena of apparitions, 
showing that premonitions are definitely articulated 
with both of them, perhaps necessitating the same 
general explanation. Of course, some of the instances 
do not betray any such character, either in their 
apparent source or in their data. But in mediumistic 
phenomena we do not always have a clue as to the 
real or even apparent source of the facts. But if 
we find some of the best premonitions associated with 
the more familiar phenomena of mediumship we may 
suspect what the final explanation of the facts will 



330 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

be. I shall quote one detailed incident from the 
Piper case in illustration. It occurs in a sitting of 
Dr. A. Blair Thaw's. It will be found in Proceed- 
ingSy Vol. XIII, pp. 565 - 566, with note appended 
on p. 567, and communication p. 575. I quote the 
record as it was made, the matter in parentheses 
being the questions or statements made by the sitter 
and all else what purports to be communication from 
the discarnate. 

"W — is coming to us. (How soon.'') He 
is coming within six months or a year. (How is 
W — going to pass out?) He's going to sleep, and 
when he wakes he'll be in spirit. Heart will stop. 
Kidneys out of order. He's out of order all over." 
Twelve days later the same person was alluded to 
again by the trance personality of Mrs. Piper and the 
following ensued. " Tell me about the other W — . 
He's coming to us. (How long.^^) About six months 
or less." 

Dr. Hodgson states in his note : — "At the time 
of the sitting Dr. Thaw had no more reason to ex- 
pect the death of W — than at any time for two or 
three years, W — being a chronic invalid with asthma. 
There had been some increase of difficulty of breath- 
ing and circulation during the past eighteen months, 
and a brief period of slight dropsical symptoms dur- 
ing the winter. Two weeks after sitting W — came 
to New York for a careful medical examination, and 
for the first time kidney disease was discovered. 

*' W — died September 3d, in sleep, of heart fail- 
ure, four months later. W — had been a great suf- 
ferer most of his life." 



PREMONITIONS 331 

Here is a clear and explicit premonition, more or 
less with details, and it definitely takes the form of 
mediumistic communications, and suggests the most 
intelligible explanation of those similar cases which 
I have quoted, and leaves us perplexed only in regard 
to that type of physical events apparently too com- 
plicated to make any prediction possible. As we can 
understand how an intelligence, situated to know 
more than we know normally about the human or- 
ganism, might predict what even a physician could 
not tell in any definite manner, so we have only to 
await further investigation and knowledge to make 
these larger perplexities intelligible. One thing, I 
think, is certain. The very nature of the phenomena, 
associated as they so often are with apparitions and 
mediumistic, or even clairvoyant incidents, shows that 
they must find the same general explanation and that 
they involve a distinct unity with those which I have 
quoted at greater length in previous chapters. But 
we have to pursue our inquiries much further before 
we can be sure that even the conjectured explanation 
will apply to more than the few that are made in- 
telligible by it. 



CHAPTER X 

MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 

In common parlance mediumistic phenomena are as 
comprehensive as all the types I have illustrated and 
discussed. Ever since the oracles existed the phe- 
nomena associated with the so-called " supernatural " 
have classified themselves most naturally under this 
general head, and they received the general expla- 
nation of spiritistic. Clairvoyance is so generally 
associated with the common conception of the term 
medium that its import has to be wrenched a little 
in order to give it a technical meaning. But in 
recent psychic research mediumship has obtained 
that narrower definition which associates the term 
with real or alleged communications with a discar- 
nate world, and the other functions popularly asso- 
ciated with it are either regarded as adjuncts of 
spiritistic agency or capacities of the subject through 
which communication with the discamate is effected. 
The consequence is that, after the discrimination and 
analysis of scientific men, whatever the association 
of the various phenomena, the term " medium " has 
come to denote more technically those peculiarly en- 
dowed persons who exhibit facts apparently repre- 
senting communication with a spiritual world. 
Whether that explanation of the alleged facts is the 

true one or not, this is the accepted definition of the 

332 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 333 

term, and it will be used here to cover a type of 
incidents, apparently obtained in some supernormal 
manner, and distinguished from such as have been 
discussed, by this peculiar relevance to a spiritistic 
theory. With that conception in view I shall illus- 
trate in this chapter the phenomena that lay claim 
to such a source and select my instances from other 
cases than that of Mrs. Piper. They will show that 
the facts are less sporadic than is often imagined. 

The reason that so much stress and publicity have 
been given to the case of Mrs. Piper is a very simple 
one. It has been under scientific care and inspection, 
so that the most obvious of objections could be dis- 
qualified. Very simple fraud has attached itself, 
like barnacles, to the claims of mediumship, and no 
scientific man would risk his reputation or sanity in 
this field until he was assured that these practices 
were excluded from the production of phenomena 
having so important claims as evidence for a future 
life. For many years Mrs. Piper has been under the 
strictest surveillance, and the precautions taken to 
exclude the possibility of ordinary fraud have been 
so strict that all accusations for this must be shared 
by those who have had her in care. When this com- 
monest difficulty has been removed and supernormal 
phenomena of an undoubted character have been 
proven, we may well turn a serious attention to 
similar cases even though they have not so good 
a set of credentials for their validity and though 
we cannot, for scientific purposes, let down the bars 
to credulity and careless investigation. All that I 
shall claim, therefore, for the illustrations which I 



334 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

shall quote is the fact that the phenomena have the 
value of showing that the case, upon which so much 
scientific emphasis has been placed, is not wholly 
unique and that the cases which exhibit less evidence 
than this one make further investigation all the more 
imperative. They duplicate and more or less con- 
firm the characteristics that describe the more scien- 
tifically acquired facts. I shall giA^e no other value 
to the cases that I shall quote. 

It will conduce to the protection and help of the 
reader if I briefly summarize the conditions which 
are more or less indispensable to the scientific value 
of mediumistic phenomena. I shall not contend that 
all these conditions have been observed in the cases 
which I shall quote, but only that they are needed 
to give any account the importance that proof should 
have. I give these conditions for the guidance of 
those who may report what they personally know 
in their own experiments, and all who have experi- 
mented owe it to the world's help to record what 
they have ascertained. There are several conditions 
affecting the claim of a supernormal source of 
mediumistic " communications." 

(1) In various ways the extent of the medium's 
honesty must be attested. This is not because any 
scientific results should depend upon honesty, but 
because the belief or proof of it will remove the first 
objection of the sceptic. 

(2) The statements, testimony, beliefs, and opin- 
ions of the medium will count for nothing in scien- 
tific proof of the supernormal. Associated with an 
assurance of honesty, they may justify investigation, 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 335 

but in no case can they afford the shghtest weight 
in the evidential problem. The medium must be 
treated for scientific purposes as a mere machine, 
and the facts must not be affected by any other con- 
ception of his or her functions. 

(3) The medium should not know the sitter or 
person coming at first to experiment. This pre- 
caution shuts out a certain type of fraud as impossi- 
ble, if we lay the greatest stress upon first sittings, 
in the absence of the means for watching the Hfe of 
the medium. This rule applies alike to the pro- 
fessional and the private medium, the former as 
under suspicion and the latter as a means of pro- 
tection against a resolute scepticism. 

(4) In case the medium remains normally con- 
scious proper allowance must be made for the influ- 
ence of his or her normal mental states upon the 
results, whatever they are. The introduction of all 
sorts of associations and interpretations is more or 
less inevitable and the facts must be qualified by that 
disturbing influence. 

(5) When a trance condition is secured we have 
to exclude all phenomena that can be explained by 
" secondary personality," or unconscious mental ac- 
tion. Not all that occurs in a trance, if any of it, 
is attributable to supernormal sources. We must be 
able to distinguish between what comes from without 
the subject and what is consciously and unconsciously 
produced by it. 

(6) Adequate allowance, whether in or out of the 
trance, must be made for " suggestion," or conscious 
or unconscious hints from the sitter, in which infor- 



336 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

mation may be conveyed to the medium. All facts 
so explicable cannot be used as evidence of the super- 
normal, though after this is once established their 
unity with the whole may be accepted. 

(7) As perfect a record as possible should be made 
and kept of all that is said or done by the medium, 
and also of what is said and done by the experi- 
menter. A scientific account cannot be perfect until 
this result is attained. In the absence of means for 
making the record what it should be, a written ac- 
count immediately after the experiment and made 
from notes is a good substitute. 

(8) The quality of the facts or evidence in favor 
of the supernormal must be such as excludes expla- 
nation by chance coincidence, guessing, suggestion, 
secondary personality, and fraud of all kinds. They 
should take the nature of tests. What these are 
cannot be defined or illustrated here, but are well 
enough understood by intelligent people. 

(9) The quantity of evidence for the supernor- 
mal must reinforce the nature of its quality and be 
commensurate with the extent of the conclusion sug- 
gested by the facts. 

(10) In applying the spiritistic hypothesis to the 
phenomena we must be careful to observe that the 
facts have a definite bearing upon the question of 
the personal identity of deceased persons not known 
to the medium. All other facts, normal or super- 
normal, can have no weight in this issue. What 
does not relate to personal identity, though it be 
supernormal, must be referred to explanations like 
clairvoyance or telepathy. When a spiritistic theory 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 337 

is rationally supposable we may undertake to unify 
the phenomena by means of this wider view, but not 
until its demands have been satisfied. 

There are two types of phenomena associated with 
mediumship. They are physical and psychological. 
The physical are such as raps and knocks, the move- 
ment of objects without contact or touch of human 
hands, independent writing, and what are called 
materializations. I shall give very brief attention to 
these, as I do not believe in a single one of them. 
I shall not deny them, or dogmatically assert that 
they are impossible. That would not be scientific ; 
but I shall say that I have seen no satisfactory evi- 
dence of their occurrence as they are usually re- 
ported. I have investigated a few cases and found 
nothing personally that would bear criticism. I shall 
admit that there are reported instances of raps 
associated with mental phenomena whose validity 
there is no reason to question. But this does not 
prove the physical character of the " raps." It is 
unfortunate that ordinary investigators have never 
been willing to distinguish between actual human ex- 
perience in these things and the interpreted cause or 
nature of the facts. In many instances there is no 
reason to deny that reports of certain experiences 
are genuine mental facts at least, whatever view we 
take of their ultimate meaning. But it is most im- 
portant to distinguish between our actual experiences 
and what we assign as their source. The experience 
may be the same on either of two or more explana- 
tions, and if we can only suspend judgment on the 
interpretation of them, we may discover on exami- 



^.JA 



338 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

nation some interesting data bearing upon remark- 
ably systematic hallucinations. I do not say that 
all the physical phenomena are of this type, because 
I think that many of them are very simple frauds, 
and the seriousness with which they are treated by 
untrained observers is only an evidence that they 
are not acquainted with the phenomena of illusion. 
But some of them may be veridical hallucinations, 
having the same extra-organic significance that they 
are supposed to have as physical phenomena. By 
this I mean, that some phenomena which are appar- 
ently physical may not be physical at all, but mental 
with all the meaning of the physical. I could place 
in this category many reports of raps and opening 
of doors, and the production of sounds generally. 

The first circumstance to be noted in favor of this 
possibility is the fact that in telepathic phenomena 
the receiver of the telepathic message, or the per- 
cipient of the thought transmitted, often experiences 
what is called an hallucination, because the thought 
received seems to be externalized and appears at 
times as a physical reality. Though we call it an 
hallucination we describe its character by the term 
veridical, and mean thereby that it is caused by an 
external and extra-organic agency which may, in 
fact, not be what it appears to be. I have previously 
explained veridical apparitions and hallucinations as 
apparent realities which are related to an external 
cause, but not necessarily representative of it, though 
indicative of its existence, and it is the same with 
many telepathic phenomena. If this be true, one 
might well admit the fact of personal experience in 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 339 

the stories of physical phenomena purporting to be 
instigated by spirit agency and yet not admit that 
they are in reahty physical phenomena at all. That 
they are sometimes associated with facts that give 
no trouble as to their nature and yet point to ex- 
traneous causes is in favor of this possibility, and it 
has the further circumstance in its favor that the 
sounds, often significant of external influence, are 
recognized as not really external and yet describable 
as if they were. 

In the case of Rev. Stainton Moses, of which some- 
thing is to be said below, there purported to be phys- 
ical phenomena, and the recorder of them frankly 
regarded some of them as " subjective," by which 
he meant that they were hallucinations of the mind's 
own making. They were a certain type of lights. 
Others he regarded as " objective " or real, though 
there was as good reason to regard them as sub- 
jective as the class so described; and yet they may 
have had a cause external to the body and not repre- 
senting what they appeared to be. That is, they 
might conceivably be telepathically induced halluci- 
nation caused by external minds, living or deceased. 
They might be subjective in their representative 
character as apparent sensory reahties and yet in- 
dicative of intelligent external influence. If the 
reader will read some of the incidents mentioned in 
the chapter on Telepathy and some in that on Ap- 
paritions he will find material to support this possible 
view. 

Far be it from me, however, to assert with any con- 
fidence that the interpretation of any alleged phys- 



.^.^ 



840 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ical phenomena as of foreign origin shall be the 
right one. In accepting the possibility that some 
alleged physical phenomena are really mental with 
an external meaning I do not commit myself to its 
being a fact in any case, but I am only taking the 
most charitable view that can be entertained as yet. 
My only reason for accepting it is that we at least 
apparently find many mediumistic phenomena the 
effect of outside influence using the media of a 
physical organism for their manifestation, and, as 
telepathy shows this incident occasionally, we but 
articulate the most inconceivable facts with the better 
known phenomena of science, instead of insisting 
that they shall necessarily have an interpretation at 
variance with all that is scientifically known of matter 
in its inorganic forms. 

In the only instance in which I ever heard raps 
produced and claimed to represent an external cause 
I found they were always located in very close prox- 
imity to the hand of one of the parties sitting at 
the table and that hand not of the person who was 
supposed to be the medium. When the person with 
whose hand the sound was associated moved his place 
the location of the rap changed. But I have no 
reason to believe that there was any conscious fraud 
in the phenomena, and I do not believe any more 
that the raps were produced independently of the 
hand that I could only dimly see in the semi-darkness. 
The charitable view to take is that they were un- 
consciously produced, and so the result of secondary 
personality, unless the noises can be proved to have 
an intelligent source outside the organism with which 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 341 

thej are associated. I have only to say that the 
believer in physical phenomena like the kind under 
consideration is too anxious to have us accept their 
independent character, when the analogies of auto- 
matic writing, automatic speech, auditory and visual 
apparitions, and some tactile phenomena point rather 
to a subjective aspect even when the admission of a 
supernormal and foreign origin is forcibly admitted. 
I should have no objection to the admitted produc- 
tion of the raps and sounds by the definite agency of 
the medium, if only we could experiment sufficiently 
to prove that an external intelligence was necessary 
to explain their orderly character. It is not merely 
foreign origin that is wanted, but intelligent origin 
and one independent of the mind through which the 
influence is produced. There are ways by which 
this can be done without assuming that independent 
physical phenomena are necessary, though the deter- 
mination of them and the conclusion must be left to 
the expert psychologist. 

The only case in which we are familiar with the 
production of physical phenomena by mind is in 
organic life. Here we see movements in matter con- 
stantly produced by mind, consciously or uncon- 
sciously acting upon it. As we have found all sorts 
of phenomena, sensory and motor, that is, sense 
appearances and muscular movements, telepathic ally 
instigated by impression upon a living organism 
from an external mind at a distance, we may well 
resort first to this conception of the problem to ex- 
plain certain alleged physical phenomena before ac- 
cepting anything more miraculous. As I have stated 



342 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

more than once, science means the reduction of new 
facts to the familiar as far as possible, and when 
telepathy and other phenomena are so closely con- 
nected with living organisms, and are at the same 
time simulative of physical realities, we should first 
seek in the mind an articulation of alleged physical 
phenomena with what we admit to be a foreign in- 
fluence mediated through that mind, consciously or 
unconsciously. We have no analogies in physical 
science for the independent production of motion in 
matter, except in magnetism and electricity. Here 
immediate contact is not necessary to initiate move- 
ment or physical effects of a certain kind. But it 
is only in association with magnetic forces that we 
find anything like so-called telekinesis, which is de- 
fined as the movement of objects, presumptively by 
outside agency, without contact. In all other condi- 
tions of physical knowledge such phenomena are unin- 
telligible. But the initial movement of physical ob- 
jects by organic beings is as familiar a phenomenon 
as any in the inorganic world, and having once estab- 
lished that automatic speech, automatic writing, and 
auditory and visual, with occasional tactile and motor 
facts, can be the result of foreign instigation with- 
out doing violence to any known law of physics or 
physiology, we may well first try alleged physical 
phenomena in spiritualism by an interpretation in- 
volving the association of living beings in their 
production, and extend our investigations until the 
quality and quantity of evidence is sufficient to make 
us accept the foreign source of the facts in spite of 
their connection with the conscious or unconscious 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 343 

activity of a living mind. In that way we can make 
allowance for the largest amount of illusion and 
fraud while we still tolerate the hypothesis of ex- 
ternal intelligent agency, where the hypotheses just 
mentioned can be proved not to apply. But I shall 
not at present turn an expectant or hopeful attitude 
toward alleged physical phenomena, though I shall 
not take an unscientific view of them when alleged. 
I must first exhaust the familiar interpretation of 
them. 

Another phenomenon is associated with mediumship 
which puts decided limits to what can claim a foreign 
source. It is secondary personality, which I have 
defined as unconscious mental action, variously named 
subconscious mind, subliminal consciousness, and un- 
conscious cerebration. It does not stand for the idea 
of two souls, as many think, but for two more or less 
separated streams of mental activity, the normal 
stream being the one with which we are most familiar 
introspectively. This unconscious mental action, or 
secondary personality, seems so foreign to the nor- 
mal consciousness that the layman can be excused 
his mistaking it for spirits. But the trained psy- 
chologist will not feel justified in supposing any such 
source until he finds that kind of facts v/hich bear 
upon the personal identity of a definitely known and 
deceased person, not known to the source through 
whom the message comes. Secondary personality 
represents such a large number of the instances 
claimed for spirit agency that the rarity of the latter 
is hardly a recognized fact. 

I shall not discuss secondary personality at any 



344 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

length, as it belongs more particularly to the type 
of phenomena that represent objections to the super- 
normal of any kind, whether telepathic or otherwise. 
I shall treat the problem elsewhere. What I wish to 
do here is to present phenomena that at least have 
a claim to serious consideration in favor of the super- 
normal, whether the final explanation of them be 
that or not. Hence I shall content myself with the 
simple recognition of secondary personality as repre- 
senting a very large field of facts, excluding both a 
supernormal and a spiritistic interpretation. Such 
a warning against the hasty acceptance of spiritistic 
phenomena suffices for intelligent people. 

The mediumistic phenomena which demand atten- 
tion for their real psychological interest are those 
which, superficially at least, exhibit the appearance of 
being communications from discamate spirits. I refer 
to " messages " which indicate intelligence in their 
very form, and claim to be from spirits. The condi- 
tions under which these phenomena occur are various, 
and I cannot in a work of this kind explain fully the 
nature and conditions of their occurrence. I shall 
only outline the conditions sufficiently for the inex- 
perienced reader to understand the manner in which 
such phenomena take place. 

A medium is a person whose mind or bodily or- 
ganism is apparently accessible to influences from a 
spiritual world. These influences may aff^ect the sub- 
liminal consciousness of the person through whose 
body messages are sent, or they may aff*ect the nerv- 
ous system as our own mind aff^ects the body. In 
the former case we have what may be called, for 



(I 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA S45 

the lack of a better term, the subKminal type of 
medium. In the latter case we may call it the " pos- 
session " type, by which we mean that the influence of 
the subject's mind, conscious and unconscious, is com- 
pletely suppressed and the nervous system becomes 
a delicate machine for the intromission of messages 
from without, affecting it as an automatic piece of 
machinery. In the former case the influence of the 
subject's subconscious action may be felt on the 
messages, as it is often in telepathic impressions. 
However this may be, we shall always meet certain 
kinds of difficulty in communications from another 
world. In the subliminal type we have to meet the 
modifying and distorting influence of the medium's 
own mind, conscious or unconscious, upon the mes- 
sages. In the possession type the difficulty will be 
to preserve that balance of the physiological func- 
tions of the system to get any influence at all upon 
the nervous system analogous to those of our own 
consciousness. In both we have decided limitations 
to communication, to say nothing of other probable 
difficulties associated with the mental condition of 
communicators, if we are entitled to suppose them 
at all in the case. But with this idea that we have 
an intermediate agency for efi'ecting communications 
we may quote such as allege a discamate source. 
They must betray evidence of being supemormally 
acquired, or they are subject to objections from the 
various hypotheses already mentioned. I shall there- 
fore confine myself to classical instances where the 
phenomena apparently indicate the origin claimed for 
them, and leave the question whether they really have 



^Jg^ 



346 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

such a source for later examination. I am now in- 
terested only in the facts claiming a discarnate cause. 

The first instance is a very complicated one. It 
is a combination of apparitions, dreams, and ordi- 
nary mediumistic phenomena, and is vouched for by 
the Marquis of Bute, Dr. Ferrier, and Mr. Andrew 
Lang. The well-known character of these men es- 
tablishes the noteworthy nature of the facts. 

Mr. Myers introduces the narrative of the case 
with the explanation that, owing to the need of pri- 
vacy, the names and addresses of all the parties have 
to be reserved, which, of course, is always unfor- 
tunate for the scientist who wishes to investigate, but 
which, in this case, Mr. Myers thinks is justifiable. 
The names sustaining the facts will suflSce. The 
general description of the phenomena is as follows. 

" Mrs. Claughton (here so-called) visits a house 
reputed haunted. She there twice sees a phantasm, 
which she is able to describe; the description suiting 
a deceased lady unknown to her, who had lived in 
that house. There is external evidence to the fact 
that she twice saw this phantom and was greatly 
impressed. The phantom appeared to speak at some 
length; and made many statements of fact unknown 
to Mrs. Claughton. Some of these were such as could 
at once be verified; and they were found correct. 
Others related to an expedition which Mrs. Claugh- 
ton was enjoined to make to a village, here called 
Meresby, of which she had not previously heard. 
Certain persons whom she would find there were de- 
scribed by name and with other details. Certain 
incidents of her future journey thither were also 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 347 

described; thus bringing this case within our defini- 
tion of premonitions ; although it may be urged that 
the fulfilment of the predictions was accomplished by 
suggestions given to certain persons by the disem- 
bodied intelligence ; so that no true precognition was 
needed. Mrs. Claughton went to Meresby and found 
all as foretold. She there received (as had also been 
foretold) additional communications ; and she then 
obeyed certain orders as to the communication of 
facts to survivors. That she made the journey, and 
certain subsequent visits, is proved by external evi- 
dence. As to the messages to survivors, nothing is 
known beyond Mrs. Claughton's own statement that 
they effected the intended result." 

Mr. Myers also adds : — " An explanation from in- 
sanity or hysterical desire of notoriety is equally 
untenable. Mrs. Claughton is a widow lady, moving 
in good society, with children growing up, and known 
to many persons as a cheerful, capable, active woman, 
who has seen much of the world, and has plenty of 
business of her own to attend to ; — and who is by 
no means given to dwelling on things morbid and 
mysterious. She has, indeed, had some previous ex- 
periences of apparitions, which all appear to have 
been veridical, but she has paid little attention to 
them, and has never sought to encourage such visi- 
tations in any way." 

The written evidence in the case consists of three 
documents. The first is Mrs. Claughton's own diary. 
The second is Mr. Andrew Lang's account sent to 
the Society for Psj^chical Research, and the third is 
the account dictated to the Ma-rquis of Bute by Mrs. 



348 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Claughton and corroborated by other testimony. I 
quote this last document. 

" She was staying, in 1893, with her two children 
at 6 Blake Street, a house belonging to Mrs. Ap- 
pleby, daughter of the late Mrs. Blackburn (who 
died after three da3^s' residence, December 22d, 1878, 
of a wasting illness, which had lasted three years), 
but let to Mr. Buckley. They had so done at least 
five or six times before, during about seven years. 
Had heard the house was haunted, and may have 
heard the ghost was Mrs. Blackburn's. Had been 
told water was found spilt on the floors inexplicably. 
They arrived on October 4th. About 1.15 a. m., 
Monday, October 9th, Mrs. Claughton was in bed 
with one of her children, the other sleeping in the 
room. Mrs. Claughton had offered to be of any use 
she could to Mrs. Buckley, who had arrived from 
London unwell on Saturdaj^ She had been asleep, 
and was awakened by the footsteps of a person com- 
ing down-stairs, whom she supposed to be a servant 
coming to call Miss Buckley. The steps stopped at 
the door. The sounds were repeated twice more at 
the interval of a few moments. !Mrs. Claughton rose, 
lit the candle, and opened the door. There was no 
one there. She noticed the clock outside was 1.20. 
She shut the door, got into bed, read, and, leaving 
the candle burning, went to sleep. Woke up, finding 
the candle spluttering out. Heard a sound like a 
sigh. Saw a woman standing by the bed. She had 
a soft white shawl round the shoulders, held by the 
right hand towards the left shoulder, bending slightly 
forwards. Mrs. Claughton thinks the hair was hght- 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 349 

ish brown, and the shawl partly over the head, but 
does not remember distinctly, and has no impression 
of the rest of the dress ; it was not grave clothes. 
She said : ' Follow me.' Mrs. Claughton rose, took 
the candle, and followed her out of the room, across 
the passage, and into the drawing-room. She has no 
recollection as to opening of the doors. The house- 
maid next day declared that the drawing-room door 
had been locked by her. On entering the drawing- 
room, Mrs. Claughton, finding the candle on the point 
of extinction, replaced it with a pink one from the 
chiffonier near the door. The figure went nearly 
to the end of the room, turned three-quarters round, 
said ' to-morrow,' and disappeared. Mrs. Claughton 
returned to the bedroom, where she found the elder 
child (not the one in the bed) sitting up. It asked, 
' Who is the lady in white? ' Mrs. Claughton thinks 
she answered the child, ' It's only me — mother ; go 
to sleep,' or the like words, and hushed her to sleep 
in her arms. The baby remained fast asleep. She 
lit the gas and remained awake for some two hours, 
then put out the lights and went to sleep. Had no 
fear while seeing the figure, but was upset after see- 
ing it. Would not be prepared to swear that she 
might not have walked in her sleep. Pink candle, 
partly burnt, in her room in morning. Does not 
know if she took it burnt or new. 

" In the morning she spoke to Mr. Buckley, on 
whose advice she went to ask Dr. Ferrier as to the 
figure about 3 p. m. He and his wife said the de- 
scription was like that of Mrs. Blackburn, whom Mrs. 
Claughton already suspected it to be. Thinks Dr. 



850 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Ferrier told her that Miss Blackburn (Mrs. Ap- 
pleby) had seen her mother in the same house. Mrs. 
Claughton cannot recognize the photograph of Mrs. 
Blackburn shown to her by Mr. Y. (who got it from 
Mrs. M.). She says the figure seemed smaller, and 
the features much more pinched and attenuated, like 
those of a person in the last stage of consumption, 
which was also the general appearance. By his ad- 
vice Mr. Buckley put an electric bell under Mrs. 
Claughton's pillow, communicating with Miss Buck- 
ley's room, as ]\Irs. Claughton determined to sit 
up that night and watch. 

" That night INIrs. Claughton sat up dressed, with 
the gas burning. About 1^ she partly undressed, 
put on dressing-gown and lay do^vn outside bed, 
gas still burning, and fell asleep reading. Woke 
up and found the same woman as before, but with the 
expression even more agitated. She bent over Mrs. 
Claughton and said : ' I have come. Listen ! ' She 
then made a certain statement, and asked Mrs. 
Claughton to do certain things. Mrs. Claughton 
said: 'Am I dreaming, or is it true.''' The figure 
said something like : ' If you doubt me, you will 
find that the date of my marriage was ..." (This 
is the date of the marriage, which took place in 
India, of Mrs. Blackburn to Mr. Blackburn, who is 
alive and married again. Mrs. Claughton first 
learned the corroboration of the date from Dr. Fer- 
rier on the following Thursday.) After this Mrs. 
Claughton saw a man standing on Mrs. B.'s left 
hand — tall, dark, well-made, healthy, sixty years 
old, or more, ordinary man's clothes, kind, good ex- 



,^ / 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 351 

pression. A conversation ensued between the three, 
in course of which the man stated himself to be 
George Howard, buried in Meresby Churchyard 
(Mrs. Claughton had never heard of Meresby or of 
George Howard), and gave the dates of his mar- 
riage . . . [Entries of these dates seen by me in 
Mrs. Claughton's pocket-book, as torn out and lent 
to me. — F. W. H. (Myers).] He desired Mrs. 
Claughton to go to Meresby and verify these dates 
in the registers, and, if found correct, to go to the 
church at the ensuing 1.15 a. m. and wait at the grave 
therein (S. W. corner of S. aisle) of Richard Hart, 
died . . . aetat . . . She was to verify this refer- 
ence also in the registers. He said her railway ticket 
would not be taken, and she was to send it along 
with a white rose from his grave to Dr. Ferrier. 
Forbade her having any previous communication with 
the place, or going in her own name. Said Joseph 
Wright, a dark man, to whom she should describe 
him, would help her. That she would lodge with a 
woman who would tell her that she had a child 
(drowned) buried in the same churchyard. When 
Mrs. Claughton had done all this, she should hear 
the rest of the history. Towards the end of the con- 
versation, Mrs. Claughton saw a third phantom, of 
a man whose name she is not free to give, in great 
trouble, standing, with hands on face (which he 
afterwards lowered, showing face), behind Mrs. 
Blackburn's right. The three disappeared. Mrs. 
Claughton rose and went to the door to look out 
at the clock, but was seized with faintness, returned, 
and rang the electric bell, Mr. Buckley found her 



352 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

on the ground. She was able to ask the time, which 
was about 1.20. Then fainted, and the Buckleys un- 
dressed her and put her to bed. 

" That morning, Tuesday, Mrs. Claughton sent 
for Dr. Ferrier, who corroborated certain matters 
so far as she asked him, and ascertained for her the 
date of Mrs. Blackburn's marriage (she received 
his note of the date on Thursday). She went to the 
post-office, and found that ' Meresby ' existed. Re- 
turned, and ascertained that it is in Suffolk, and 
so wrote that evening to Dr. Ferrier, and went to 
London with her daughters that (Thursday) eve- 
ning. 

" Friday night, Mrs. Claughton dreamt that she 
arrived at 5 after dusk, that a fair was going on, 
and that she had to go to place after place to get 
lodgings. Also, she and her eldest daughter dreamt 
that she would fail if she did not go alone. Went 
to station for 12 noon train on Saturday. Went 
to refreshment-room for luncheon, telling porter to 
call her in time. He went by mistake to waiting- 
room, and she missed train and had to wait (going 
to the British Museum, where she wrote her name 
in Jewel Room) until 3.5 as stated. [Hours of 
train slightly altered. — F. W. H. M.] House where 
she finally found lodgings that of Joseph Wright, 
who turned out to be the parish clerk. She sent for 
the curate by porter, to ask as to consulting regis- 
ters, but as he was dining out he did not come till 
after she had gone to bed. Sunday morning, Mrs. 
Wright spoke to her about her drowned child buried 
in the churchyard. Went to forenoon service, and 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 353 

immediately afterwards went into vestry and verified 
the registers ; described George Howard to Joseph 
Wright, who had known him and recognized descrip- 
tion ; then was taken by Joseph Wright to the graves 
of Richard Hart and George Howard. On the latter 
there is no stone, but three mounds surrounded by a 
railing overgrown with white roses. She gathered 
rose for Dr. Ferrier, as had been directed. Walk 
and talk with curate, who was not sympathetic. 
After luncheon went with Mrs. Wright and walked 
round Howard's house (country-house in park). At- 
tended evening service, and afterwards, while watch- 
ing the lights put out and the church furniture 
covered up, wondered if she would have nerve to go 
on. Back to supper ; afterwards slept and had 
dream of a terrorizing character, whereof has full 
written description. Dark night, hardly any moon, 
a few stars. To church with Joseph Wright at 
1 A. M., with whom searched interior and found it 
empty. At 1.20 was locked in alone, having no 
light ; had been told to take Bible, but had only 
Church-service, which she had left in vestry in the 
morning. Waited near grave of Richard Hart. Felt 
no fear. Received communication, but does not feel 
free to give any detail. No light. History begun 
at Blake Street then completed. Was directed to 
take another white rose from George Howard's grave 
and give it personally to his daughter (unmarried — 
living at Hart Hall), and to remark her likeness to 
him. About 1.45 Joseph Wright knocked and let 
Mrs. Claughton out. Went to George Howard's 
grave and gathered rose for Miss Howard, as had 



^^ 



354 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

been directed. Home and bed, and slept well for 
first time since first seeing Mrs. Blackburn. 

" Next day went and sketched church and identi- 
fied grave of Mrs. Rowe, on whose grave, she had 
been told in church, she would find a message for 
herself. The words engraved are . . . 

" Then called on Miss Howard and recognized 
strong hkeness to her father — carried out all things 
desired by the dead to the full, as had been requested. 
Has had no communication from any of them since. 
Nothing since has appeared in Blake Street. The 
wishes expressed to her were not illogical or unrea- 
sonable, as the ratiocination of dreams often appears, 
but perfectly rational, reasonable, and of natural im- 
portance." 

Accepting the trustworthiness of this narrative 
which is corroborated by apparently excellent au- 
thority it offers quite a perplexing problem to the 
ordinary materiahst. I should not advance any large 
theory upon such a case standing alone, especially as 
certain superficial objections can be raised to it. 
The sceptic would perhaps first note that the inci- 
dents purporting to represent Mrs. Claughton as 
taking a candle and going into another room, though 
the door was locked by the housemaid, are really 
dream incidents and not waking experiences. In this 
way the story might be discredited. But the suppo- 
sition that she was sleep-walking and not really 
awake is more in favor of its genuineness than if 
she had really been awake. The main point is the 
memory of the dream and its statements to others 
before the facts were verified. The fundamental 



•- * -^ 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 355 

question in these phenomena, is not whether we shall 
call them dreams and hallucinations, but whether such 
phenomena are coincidental with the distant events or 
facts not known to the dreamer or hallucinated per- 
son. The very nature of the mental condition of 
Mrs. Claughton suggests that she was really in a 
trance which had a memory connection with the 
normal consciousness, and after this we have only 
to ascertain whether there was any coincidence be- 
tween the incidents of the dream and verifiable facts 
not known to her. If so, we have supernormal phe- 
nomena to be accounted for by some extraordinary 
hypothesis, and the uncanny character of the facts 
or the triviality of them has nothing to do with the 
scientific issue. 

Mr. Myers quotes a case which must be abbre- 
viated. Its value comes from the authority reporting 
it. The writer of the narrative, says Mr. Myers, 
is a physician occupying an important scientific post 
on the Continent of Europe. " He is known to us 
by correspondence and through a common friend — 
himself a savant of European reputation — who has 
talked the case over with Dr. X and his wife, and 
has read the statement which we now translate and 
abbreviate. We are bound to conceal Dr. X's iden- 
tity, and even his country; nor is this unreasonable, 
since the bizarrerie of the incidents to be recorded 
would be felt as greatly out of place in his actual 
scientific surroundings. The Dr. Z who here appears 
in the somewhat dubious character of a mesmerizing 
spirit, was also, as it happens, a savant of European 
repute, and a personal friend of Dr. X's." 



356 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

I shall not quote the whole of the account, but con- 
tent myself with its abbreviation. It is a case of an 
accident to a lady, a sprained foot. She was not 
a believer in spiritistic phenomena, and in fact was 
entirely ignorant of their character. She was per- 
suaded, apparently half-j okingly , to submit to some 
table-rapping that might lead to spirit healing. In 
one of these experiments the table spelled out, by 
tilting, a diagnosis of the trouble which was what 
the living physician had feared, but which turned 
out to be false, and undertook to supply a treatment 
of sulphur ointment. After a number of interesting 
phenomena of a sort to awaken decided distrust in 
any agency, living or dead, the following events oc- 
curred, and are reported by the Dr. X mentioned 
above. 

" Mme. X was accustomed to bandage her own 
foot every morning. One day she was astonished to 
feel her hands seized and guided by an occult force. 
From that day onwards the bandaging was done 
according to all the rules of the art, and with a per- 
fection which would have done credit to the most 
skilful surgeon of either hemisphere. Although very 
adroit with her hands, Mme. X had never had occa- 
sion to practise nursing or to study minor surgery, 
yet the bandages thus automatically applied were ir- 
reproachable, and were admired by every one. When 
Mme. X wished to renew the bandages, she placed 
the strips all rolled up upon the table within reach of 
her hand, and her hand then automatically took the 
bandage which best suited the occult operation. 

'^ Mme. X is accustomed to arrange her own hair. 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 557 

One morning she said laughingly, ' I wish that a 
Court hairdresser would do my hair for me ; my 
arms are tired.' At once she felt her hands acting 
automatically, and with no fatigue for her arms, 
which seemed to be held up ; and the result was a 
complicated coiffure, which in no way resembled her 
usual simple mode of arrangement." 

Dr. X recognized that the phenomena thus re- 
ported were subjective and not evidential of extra- 
neous influences. But he goes on with some incidents 
which he thinks involve external agencies to some 
extent. 

" One of the officials of my department had suf- 
fered for many years from pleurodynia, which occa- 
sionally laid him up altogether, and also from fre- 
quent attacks of sick headache. Dr. Z (deceased) 
was consulted and prescribed an internal treatment, 
which, to my great surprise, consisted mainly of 
' Dosimetric granules ' [which Dr. X had not in 
his hfetime employed]. He also caused Mme. X 
to perform ' passes of disengagement ' for ten or fif- 
teen minutes at a time. It was noticeable that while 
these passes were made with extreme violence, Mme. 
X's hands were arrested at the distance of a milli- 
metre at most from the patient's face, without ever 
touching him in the least. Mme. X could never of 
herself have given to her movements such a degree 
of precision. For two years now the patient has felt 
no more of his pleurodynia, and his migraine is, if 
not altogether cured, at least greatly reduced. 

" One day — I suppose by way of a joke — Dr. Z, 
after one of these seances, pursued the patient with 



^j^^ 



358 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

his influence as he walked home, and made him exe- 
cute with his hands various gestures and contortions 
which drew the attention of passers-by. 

" Another time our servant A., whose husband was 
ill in hospital, came crying to Mme. X and told her 
that she had lost all hope of ever seeing him cured, 
Y. Mme. X asked Dr. Z (deceased) to take him in 
hand. He promised to do so, and said that he would 
make him feel his presence. Next morning A. went 
to the hospital and found her husband in despair, 
' Look here,' he said, ' besides what I had already, I 
am falling into a nervous malady. I have been 
shaken about all night — my arms and legs have 
executed movements which I could not control.' A. 
began to laugh, and told her husband that Dr. Z 
had taken him in hand, and that he would soon get 
well. The patient is going about as usual to-day, 
and is as well as an incurable pulmonary affection 
allows him to be. 

" Under other circumstances I have myself con- 
sulted Dr. Z as to patients under my professional 
care. On each occasion he has given a precise diag- 
nosis and has indicated a treatment, consisting mainly 
of dosimetric granules, sometimes associated with 
other treatment. These facts have been repeated 
many times, and I owe great gratitude to Dr. Z for 
the advice which he has given me. His prescriptions 
were always rational ; and when I showed fears as to 
certain doses which appeared to me too large, he took 
pains to reassure me, but stuck to his prescriptions. 
I have never had to repent having followed the ad- 
vice of my eminent colleague in the other world 5 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 359 

and I am bound to state' distinctly that every time 
that a medical question has been submitted to him the 
replies and advice of Dr. Z have been of an aston- 
ishing clearness and precision. I cannot say the 
same of communications obtained on other subjects, 
in which he seemed to take a malicious pleasure in 
leading us wrong. He — or some one else — has 
often announced to us, with intimate and minute de- 
tail, the deaths of persons known to us, who were 
found on inquiry to be alive and well." 

When the physician who reports these phenomena 
was asked whether he would interpret them spirit- 
istically, he replied : " Provisionally, yes ; unless we 
admit that there exist, superposed upon our world, 
beings distinct from humanity, but knowing it and 
studying it as we study other regions of nature, 
and assuming for the sake of amusement or for some 
other motive the role of our departed friends." 

Those of us who have relied upon more definite 
and specific phenomena for the proof of spirit- 
istic agency would reserve judgment in such a case, 
and hence I do not quote the case as evidence of such 
influence, but for the respectabihty of its data and 
character. In fact, it has the same weight as any 
report to a medical society has, and we well know 
that such societies do not exact of their reporters 
always so stringent an application of the laws of 
evidence as we must apply in proof of a surviving 
soul. The case is one that demands investigation 
wherever such phenomena occur, and evidently be- 
longs to that class of phenomena which has to be 




360 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

classified as spiritistic whether we finally decide for 
the reality of such a cause or not. 

The case of the " Watseka Wonder " very much 
resembles the one just quoted, but it is too technical 
for quotation here. It is for the expert psychologist 
to study, and I mention it only to indicate that there 
are abundant instances of mediumistic phenomena, if 
only the scientific mind can condescend to study them 
as they deserve. The " Watseka Wonder " is fully 
described in Mr. Myers' book. Human Personality 
and Its Survival of Bodily Death, as reported by Dr. 
Richard Hodgson, who personally states that he 
thinks it belongs to the spiritistic type of phenomena. 
It purports to be a case of obsession in which a liv- 
ing girl loses her own personality, apparently, and 
assumes the personality of a deceased friend and 
lives for some time with the parents of the deceased 
girl, acting the role and exhibiting the former knowl- 
edge of the deceased girl, and does not return to her 
own home and parents until the obsession is re- 
moved. The case is certainly one of the most re- 
markable on record and is apparently well substan- 
tiated by evidence. 

The next case to which some attention should be 

given is that of the Rev. Stainton Moses. His is 

certainly a remarkable phenomenon, on any theory 

whatsoever. He was educated at Oxford University, 

England, and for a time was a clergyman of the 

I j Church of England. But through the phenomena of 

j ^i automatic writing and alleged spirit messages he 

" ' became a convert to Spiritualism, and spent the rest 

of his hfe in the defence of it. It seems that no one 



MEDroMISTIC PHENOMENA 361 

ever questioned the man's natural probity, and if 
there is any perplexity in regard to the phenomena 
reported of him it is caused by the difficulty, in the 
face of the evidence and personal observations of 
sceptical friends, of supposing that the phenomena 
were due to any form of conscious and deliberate 
fraud. Unfortunately he did not permit a scientific 
investigation of his phenomena, because he thought 
it reflected on his probity, not knowing that such an 
investigation was the best protection of his honor 
against the gibes and obstinate scepticism of the 
materiahst. He chose the very course to invite that 
scepticism. But the testimony of Dr. and Mrs. Speer 
and Mr. Charlton Speer, son of Dr. Speer, Sergeant 
Cox, and Sir William Crookes as to the man's entire 
trustworthiness, to say nothing of the scepticism and 
experiment which he himself went through before 
accepting Spiritualism, is decidedly in the man's 
favor, and any accusation made against him miist 
be supported by specific evidence. 

The perplexing feature of Mr. Moses' experiences 
is their physical phenomena as alleged, consisting 
of lights, movements of matter without contact, and 
even through solid walls, and the invisible playing 
of musical instruments. These are the kind of things 
that scientific men cannot and will not accept with 
any credulity, and rightly so. If they had no other 
attestation than Mr. Moses himself we might pass 
them by without remark of any kind, save that we 
could explain them as phenomena abnormally pro- 
duced by himself under conditions for which he was 
not consciously responsible. This would save his 




362 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

reputation for probity. But the phenomena, at least 
some of them, were witnessed by the persons named 
above, and they were not witnesses to be despised. 
The conditions, however, under which some of the 
phenomena occurred were not what is necessary to 
make the reports of them as scientifically interesting 
as they would be under really adequate provisions 
against illusion and fraud. If we could combine 
the hypotheses of veridical hallucination on the part 
of the observers and spontaneous somnambulism on 
the part of Mr. Moses we might accept many of the 
phenomena without doing any violence to our phys- 
ical knowledge and save the reputation of all the 
parties concerned, while we had a genuine scientific 
interest in the incidents as reported. But I can 
feel no assurance that such an hypothesis can be 
evidentially sustained, and I mention it only in defer- 
ence to the character of the parties vouching for the 
phenomena. 

It is the psychological phenomena of the case that 
are the most interesting and that are more credible, 
at least in the light of what we now know of the 
supernormal, and it is the association of the alleged 
physical phenomena with these that either creates 
our perplexity about Mr. Moses as a whole or raises 
a suspicion in some minds about the psychical phe- 
nomena. Without using the case for proving any 
definite hypothesis I shall quote a few of the more 
striking incidents of a psychological nature. 

Many of the incidents which have at least a super- 
ficially relevant nature for a spiritistic theory are 
exposed to scepticism on the ground that we are not 



MEDroMISTIC PHENOMENA 363 

positively assured that the information was not 
within the range of Mr. Moses' normal knowledge 
at some time and had not emerged in a trance condi- 
tion when he had forgotten them. I shall therefore 
quote only those incidents which seem unexposed to 
objections of this kind, and I take Mr. Myers' ac- 
count of them in the work mentioned above. 

" In two cases the announcement of a death was 
made to Mr. Moses, when the news was apparently 
not known to him by any normal means. One of these 
(the case of President Garfield) is given in 948 B. 
(Appendix to Human Personality, etc.) The other, 
which I now proceed to recount, is in some ways the 
most remarkable of all, from the series of chgmces 
which have been needful to establish its verity. The 
spirit in question is that of a lady known to me, 
whom Mr. Moses had met, I believe, once only, and 
whom I shall call Blanche Abercromby. The publi- 
cation of the true name was forbidden by the spirit 
herself, for a reason which was at once obvious to 
me when I read the case, but which was not, so far 
as I can tell, fully known to Mr. Moses. The lady's 
son, whom I have since consulted, supports the pro- 
hibition; and I have consequently changed the name 
and omitted the dates. 

" The lady died on a Sunday afternoon, about 
twenty-five years ago, at a country-house about two 
hundred miles from London. Her death, which was 
regarded as an event of public interest, was at once 
telegraphed to London, and appeared in Monday's 
Times; but, of course, on Sunday evening no one in 
London, save the Press and perhaps the immediate 



, 



364 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

family, was cognizant of the fact. It will be seen that 
on that evening, near midnight, a communication pur- 
porting to come from her was made to Mr. Moses 
at his secluded lodgings in the north of London. 
The identity was some days later corroborated by 
a few lines purporting to come directly from her, 
and to be in her handwriting. There is no reason 
to suppose that Mr. Moses had ever seen this hand- 
writing. His one known meeting with this lady and 
her husband had been at a seance — not, of course, 
of his own — where he had been offended by the 
strongly expressed disbelief of the husband in the 
possibility of such phenomena. 

" On receiving these messages Mr. Moses seems 
to have mentioned them to no one, and simply 
gummed down the pages of his manuscript-book, 
marking the book outside ' Private Matter.' The 
book when placed in my hands [about twenty years 
after and after Mr. Moses' death] was still gummed 
down, although Mrs. Speer was cognizant of the 
communication. I opened the pages (as instructed 
by the executors), and was surprised to find a brief 
letter which, though containing no definite facts, 
was entirely characteristic of the Blanche Aber- 
cromby whom I had known. But although I had re- 
ceived letters from her in life, I had no recollection 
of her handwriting. I happened to know a son of 
hers sufficiently well to be able to ask his aid, — aid 
which, I may add, he would have been most unlikely 
to afford to a stranger. He lent me a letter for 
comparison. The strong resemblance was at once 
obvious, but the A of the surname was made in the 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 365 

letter in a way quite different from that adopted in 
the automatic script. The son then allowed me to 
study a long series of letters, reaching down till 
almost the date of her death. From these it appeared 
that during the last year of her life she had taken 
to writing the A (as her husband had always done) 
in the way in which it was written in the automatic 
script. 

" The resemblance of handwriting appeared both 
to the son and to myself to be incontestable ; but as 
we desired an experienced opinion he allowed me to 
submit the note-book and two letters to Dr. Hodgson. 
Readers of the Proceedings of the Society for Psy- 
chical Research may remember that Dr. Hodgson 
succeeded in tracing the authorship of the ' Koot 
Hoomi ' letters to Madame Blavatsky and to Damo- 
dar, by evidence based on a minute analysis of hand- 
writing." 

Dr. Hodgson's letter is then quoted in full in 
which he endorses the belief that the writing so em- 
phatically resembles that of Blanche Abercromby 
that he says : " I have no doubt whatever that 
the person who wrote the note-book writing in- 
tended to reproduce the writing of Blanche Aber- 
cromby." This does not accuse Mr. Moses of fraud- 
ulent reproduction of the writing, but only leaves 
the real source of the imitation unknown. The inci- 
dent is dwelt on to emancipate the character of Mr. 
Moses, and not to prove the explanation which the 
fact suggests. Other incidents in the case are neces- 
sary to that end, and they seem to be present. But 
the primary object here is to exhibit instances of 



■ -"^ "^ 



1 



S66 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

really or apparently supernormal phenomena show- 
ing that the claims of a spiritistic theory are not 
wholly isolated. 

M. Aksakoff, a Russian savant of some reputation, 
reports a very interesting case of real or apparent 
spirit communication which is too long to quote, but 
it can be found in Mr. Myers' work, Human Persoiv- 
dityy etc., where it is quoted in full (Vol. 2, pp. 
466-471). 

I quote from the Proceedings one incident in the 
experiences of Miss A., whose experiments in crystal 
vision were mentioned in an earlier chapter. Miss 
A. also does automatic writing, and the following 
facts were obtained in that way, apparently repre- 
senting communications from a deceased person. It 
is especially interesting as illustrating apparent 
mental confusion on the part of the communicator, 
and so repeats a phenomenon so apparent in the 
case of Mrs. Piper. The incident has some evidential 
security. 

" On June 27th, 1891, Miss A. took pencil in hand. 
The following notes were made directly after the 
sitting, and the automatic script is in my hands 
(Mr. F. W. H. Myers). The handwriting of the 
soi-disant Jack Creasy is barely legible and of an 
uneducated type. 

" [Much scribbling. At last, very illegibly, and 
many times, was written] ' Jack.' (* Jack ' who.^*) 
[Miss A. said : ' I dare say Jack the Ripper, or 
some one of that kind.'] Jack Creasy. (What do 
you want.?) Help pore Mary. (Where did you 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 367 

live?) [Very illegible.] Fillers [or] Tillers Build- 
ings. (Where?) Greenwich. 

" (Are you in the flesh ? ) No — flesh all burnt. 
[Then a rude drawing not recognizable.] (Were 
you burnt?) Yes — piche kitl. (In Fillers Build- 
ings?) In Blackwell Road. (When?) Long — 
perhaps twenty month. (Was it an accident?) Aw- 
ful. Mister Lennard put us to shift the mixter; 
Bob Heal put the light for me the pitch vat cort. 

"(What works?) Tar. (At Greenwich?) Yes, 
Blackwell Rode. (What kind of works?) Abot. 
(Do you mean Abbot's works?) Abots — yes — 
yes — Blackwell. (Were many killed?) I know 
nothin. (What help do you want for Mary?) 
Don't know nothin — find her — and help her — 
ask after pore Jack Creasy's Mary. (Is she at 
Greenwich? Can you give her address?) Can't tell 
— can't see — she was there. (Where?) Fullus or 
Fillers Buildings — bless you." 

No further writing occurred. Investigation proved 
that a Jack Creasy had been burnt by an explosion 
of a pitch vat, and died from the eff^ects of it. The 
accident took place in the tar-distilling works of 
Forbes, Abbot, and Lennard at Greenwich. The 
works were bounded on one side by Blackwell Lane, 
Apparently the name Fuller or Fillers is a mistake 
for Forbes, though we have no evidence of this. 
No such person as Bob Heal could be found, and the 
wife of Jack Creasy was not named Mary. The 
death of Jack Creasy had occurred two years pre- 
viously, and was mentioned with the accident in the 
local papers, which it is probable that Miss A. never 



^r 



I 



S68 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

saw. The case, however, is mainly interesting for 
the apparent mental confusion in the " communi- 
cator." 

I turn now to a case which involves my own per- 
sonal investigation and of which I have hitherto said 
nothing for the public, except a short account of 
some subliminal phenomena associated with it. I 
accidentally came across the case at the beginning 
of 1901. It is the wife of an orthodox clergyman 
whose identity I have to conceal under the name of 
Smead. It is only public prejudice, however, and 
the desire of the husband and wife to avoid notoriety 
that makes this concealment necessary. I took great 
care to have reason to believe in the entire honesty 
of Mr. and Mrs. Smead, because I have not the same 
kind of defence that we have in the Piper case to 
present to scientific interest, and I do not here intend 
that what I report of it shall have any other impor- 
tance than my personal opinion of its genuineness. 
It confirms the type of phenomena exhibited in the 
case of Mrs. Piper, but has not had the same kind 
of investigation or protection against either the ef- 
fects of subliminal memories or the possible accusa- 
tion of deception. It suffices to say that I do not 
believe that any disingenuousness is chargeable in 
it, but that can be only my opinion and is worth 
only as much as that opinion may be. It is not a 
professional case, and in fact no gain has been the 
result of the phenomena. On the contrary, the rec- 
ord has been at the cost of both money and much 
time to Mr. and Mrs. Smead. No remuneration of 
any sort has accompanied the making of the record, 



"m 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 369 

which is largely that of Mr. Smead himself. Only 
my own private experiments represent an independ- 
ent record. In quoting its incidents I shall change 
all names whose publication might reveal any one's 
identity. 

Mrs. Smead could write automatically from child- 
hood with the planchette, and during several years 
had experienced a number of apparitions, nearly all 
non-coincidental. But in 1896 an interesting inci- 
dent occurred that turned both Mr. and Mrs. Smead's 
attention to the question more seriously. Mr. and 
Mrs. Smead had had a friend by the name of Maude 
L. Jennings in the pastorate from which he had 
moved about two years previous to the experience 
about to be narrated. It was separated by about 
one hundred miles from their present residence. 
This removal took place in 1894. For about a year 
some occasional correspondence was carried on be- 
tween Mrs. Smead and this friend, but it ceased alto- 
gether, according to Mrs. Smead's memory, about a 
year after their removal. In August, 1896, about 
a year after the cessation of the correspondence, at 
a sitting of which the record was made at the time 
and kept — and which I personally copied — the 
planchette wrote that this Maude L. Jennings had 
died of pneumonia ; that she had died on March 
S5th, 1896; and that her attending physician was 
a Dr. Perkins. Mr. Smead wrote to the mother of 
Miss Jennings, not knowing whether any such " mes- 
sage " could be trusted, and ascertained from her by 
return post that Maude L. Jennings had died of 
pneumonia on April 25th, 1896, and that a Dr. Per- 



k^trnm^samk 



370 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

kins had been her physician. In response to a query 
at the sitting, this Miss Jennings, who purported to 
be communicating, said she had been buried in a 
certain cemetery, naming it. Inquiry showed that 
this was not true, but that the parents seem to have 
thought of this burial. 

This incident led to more definite experimentation, 
and the result was that a deceased brother of Mr. 
Smead purported to take control and with two de- 
ceased children (still-born) of Mr. and Mrs. Smead 
carried on a large system of " communications," 
claiming to represent facts about the planet Mars. 
There is no scientific evidence whatever that these 
" communications " are anything more than sublimi- 
nal creations of Mrs. Smead's unconscious mind, 
after the manner of the phenomena of Mile. Helene 
Smith, under the observations of Professor Flournoy. 
I shall treat of these in a work involving less of the 
supernormal than I am here illustrating. 

The Martian episodes were followed by alleged 
communications from a person calling himself Har- 
rison Clarke, who gave quite a detailed and specific 
account of his earthly life. Examination showed 
that they were false and that the best that could 
be made out of this personality was again a sub- 
liminal creation of Mrs. Smead's own mind. When 
it was explained to this personality that he had 
not proved his reality he reluctantly disappeared, 
and his place was taken again by the deceased brother 
of Mr. Smead. 

It was just after I had been able to exorcise Har- 
rison Clarke, in default of his ability to prove his 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 371 

reality, that I resolved to have some personal experi- 
ments to test the case. I therefore arranged for a 
series of sittings at my own house simultaneous with 
sittings by Dr. Hodgson with Mrs. Piper, and with- 
out telling Mr. and Mrs. Smead what I was doing, 
or the main object that I had in the experiment. 
The result, which has a bearing upon the whole char- 
acter of the case, must be told before narrating other 
incidents. 

In an experiment with Mrs. Piper, perhaps a year 
or more previously (the record shows the exact date), 
a message purporting to come from my deceased 
father, first warning me against certain experiments 
that I had tried with a fraudulent medium in New 
York, and then giving me a pass sentence in a lan- 
guage which Mrs. Piper does not know, said that 
I was not in the future to recognize his presence until 
I received this sentence in connection with his name. 
With this in mind, a fact wholly unknown to Mrs. 
Smead, I arranged for the experiments coinci- 
dentally with Dr. Hodgson's at Mrs. Piper's. 

At the first few sittings with Mrs. Smead nothing 
of an evidential sort occurred. There was great 
difficulty in producing any automatic writing at all. 
But finally, in connection with my father's name, I re- 
ceived one word of this pass sentence most certainly, 
possibly the second, but certainly not the third, 
though there were apparently some of the letters of 
the third word. Mrs. Smead is not familiar with 
this language. 

I received quite a number of other incidents which 
may have been supernormal, but the evidence for 



37^ ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

this is not sufficient for me to affirm it. I shall then 
proceed with incidents in the experiments of Mr. and 
Mrs. Smead which were conducted under my super- 
vision as to method and record. The chief value of 
these experiments lies in the thorough and honest 
manner in which Mr. and Mrs. Smead reported inci- 
dents that had no evidential value, and which tended 
to disqualify the theory which both were inclined 
to believe, namely, that the messages were from dis- 
carnate spirits. I take up some of the most inter- 
esting of these incidents. 

Mr. Smead wanted to test the spiritistic claims of 
his deceased brother, and in accordance with my 
advice asked him to tell him, Mr. Smead, something 
which the latter did not know. On one occasion he 
asked this brother if he could tell where he and him- 
self used to hold meetings of a secret order. An 
answer referring to Mrs. Smead's " second self " 
was accompanied with the statement : " We used to 
play tick tack. Do you remember that man chased 
us? " Mr. Smead asked for the name, and it was 
given as Roberts. This was correct, and the two 
had been chased by a man with this name when play- 
ing such a game, though this incident was not in 
the mind of Mr. Smead when he asked his question. 
Mrs. Smead, so far as could be remembered, knew 
none of these incidents. In connection with this 
circumstance Mr. Smead asked his brother to tell 
the name of the station master at the place where he, 
this brother, was accidentally killed by a railway 
engine. The name was given as " Mr. Hwtt . • • 



fm&m^ ■'■HP 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA S73 

Hwett . . . no . . . Hewitt." The proper name 
was Hoitf and was not known to Mrs. Smead. 

On another occasion Mr. Smead resolved upon an- 
other test. He had found in the pocketbook of the 
deceased brother after the accident a httle poem en- 
titled Evelyn, and suspected that this was the name 
of his lady love. At a sitting, therefore, in which 
this brother purported to be present, he asked him 
what the name of his last lady love was, and the 
answer came " Evelyn." A little later Mrs. Smead 
asked that the full name be given, and was think- 
ing that it might be a Minnie Sellers whom he had 
known to be an acquaintance of this deceased brother. 
The answer came Evelyn Sellers. Inquiry proved 
that the real name was Evelyn Hammond. Neither 
Mr. nor Mrs. Smead knew this lady. The incident 
points to the influence of telepathy from the mind 
of Mr. Smead. 

In one of the communications from Maude L. 
Jennings a reference was made to a young boy, 
giving the full name, whom Mr. Smead and Mrs. 
Smead had known in their pastorate, and it was 
said that he had been badly treated by his guardian 
and that, after losing all his money, he had gone 
to New Haven. This last incident, Mr. and Mrs. 
Smead knew nothing of, as the boy had passed en- 
tirely out of their knowledge. Investigation proved 
that the statement was true, all other facts being 
known to the Smeads. 

In another communication from the same person, 
Miss Jennings alluded to geometry and rightly gave 
the name of her teacher in it. Mr. Smead asked 



m^ 



374 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

her to give him some geometrical problem. The 
response was the figure for bisecting an angle. This 
was correctly done, and an attempt made to give the 
demonstration of it. But this was not intelligible. 
Now Mrs. Smead had never studied geometry, and 
never knew, so far as she can recall, that Miss Jen- 
nings studied it, though she could infer it. It 
seems that Maude L. Jennings studied geometry 
a year after the Smeads had left the place of her 
home. 

On February 9th, 1901, an old acquaintance and 
parishioner of Mr. Smead purported to communicate. 
He first stated that he li^^ed at Sandwich, and in 
a moment gave the initials of his name as " B. B. H." 
by which he was recognized, though Mr. Smead did 
not mention the name, but only said, " I know now." 
The communicator then said, " Why do you not 
write to my wife and comfort her? She is a good 
woman." Mr. Smead remarked : " I am sorry about 
your son George," and the reply was, " Poor boy 1 
It is hard for his mother and Lydia. She takes 
trouble well." The boy was in an asylum. Mr. 
Smead then obtained consent to ask questions, and 
the communications continued as follows. 

" (When did you die?) It was in July. [Cor- 
rect.] (What day of the month?) It was a year 
ago last July. [Correct.] (What day of the 
month?) You was there and it was on Wed ... at 
one thirty o'clock afternoon. (Can you give me 
the day of the month?) I don't just remember, but 
think it was 17, yes, you know. You came over the 
next Sunday. (Go on.) You remember what the 



•sr 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 375 

people used to call me. (Yes, but will you write it 
for me to keep?) Captain Houston. [Correct.] 
(I thought it was Burleigh.) Yes. (Go on.) Then 
when jou first came to town you remember what I 
told you about finding water .^^ (Yes, I do. Won't 
you write it out so I can have it as evidence?) 

" I, Burleigh B. Houston, told this brother when 
I was walking with him in the driveway at the back 
of his house, near the pump, that I could and did 
have the power or gift of God which enabled me to 
tell whether the place which was selected was a place 
in which the water-supply was good and would be 
lasting, and I, Burleigh B. Houston — No. Well, 
they called me Burleigh, and I, Burleigh B. Hous- 
ton, write this to prove to any one who may doubt 
my good pastor's word that it is and was Burleigh 
B. Houston. 

" (Write your name as you used to do on earth.) 
I cannot do it with Sister Smead's hand. You know 
I was such an old body and shook so; it has left 
me now." In a moment the communicator remarked 
that the incident about the finding of water was not 
known to Mrs. Smead. 

The facts are these. Captain Houston, as he was 
called, died as indicated, except that Mr. Smead is 
not certain of the date or of the hour of his death. 
He thought the date was the 19th of July, instead 
of the 17th, as stated. In other respects the inci- 
dents were correct. That about the water finding 
is exact, and Mr. Smead says that Mrs. Smead knew 
nothing of it, and her statement is to the same effect, 
though she admits knowledge of the others. Mr. 



rii^^HBM^ 



376 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

Houston was a dowser. Lydia was the name of his 
son's wife, known to the Smeads. The allusion to the 
shaking of his body is correct, as the man was pal- 
sied. The use of " Sister " and " Brother," as ap- 
plied to Mr. and Mrs. Smead, was characteristic, as 
it was the habit of the church to which he belonged. 

On another occasion an interesting message pur- 
ported to come from an old acquaintance and friend 
who had been known years before by Mrs. Smead. I 
quote this sitting in detail. 

"Mr. G. Morse. (Write it again.) Mr. George 
Morse. (Is it Mr. George Morse.?) Yes. (You 
may go on. Write what you wish.) Yes, take to 
my wife my love. Tell her she will be with me soon, 
that her mother and Lizzie will be waiting for her. 
(Give me the name of your wife.) Mary Morse. 
(That is your wife, Mary Morse .f^) Yes. (Tell me 
the street and number, so that I can find her.) I 
cannot tell you just where. You can find her by 
asking her pastor. (What church is it.'^) The 
Fourth Street. (Is it the Fourteenth Street.?) No, 
Fourth Baptist Church. (What city.?) South Bos- 
ton. (You may go on. Tell us what you wish. I 
will try to find your wife for you.) Miss Robertson 
knew me. [Maiden name of Mrs. Smead.] (What 
was Miss Robertson's name.?) There were several 
girls, but we all liked this one best. You call her 
by a different name. (I call her by the name of Ida 
M. Smead. Do not forget that. ) Not that. (What 
do I call her, then?) Maude. [True. I often call 
her Maude instead of Ida.] (Is this the George 
Morse that Ida used to know when she was a girl.?) 



'■^" ■ ■-■-■-"'^ 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 377 

It is his father. (When did jou die?) In the year 
when God called me. It was some eight years ago, 
I think. (Can you tell me the month?) Mary can. 
You see she will remember better. (Will you tell 
me the disease?) Pneumonia. (You have been dead 
eight years, have you?) It must be. (You may go 
on, Mr. Morse. You may give me any test I can 
have to find out that it is really you.) I would like 
you to ask my wife what my trade was. (What was 
it, that I may know if her answer is correct?) Mas- 
ter mason. (Do you mean brick or stone?) Stone, 
yes. (Go on.) Y. . . . I will tell you, Ida." 

[Mr. Smead adds a note here, saying : " I did not 
know what this meant and we asked for an explana- 
tion, and the following was given."] 

" Your wife was wondering if Lottie was here. 
[Mrs. Smead said, apropos of this message, that 
she was thinking that ' if this was really Mr. Morse, 
I wonder where Lottie is.' The message in any 
view of it refers to her thoughts.] 

"(Go on. Give me another test that I can use.) 
You can ask Mary if her sister's husband is still 
living, but he is here. (Give the name of this man.) 
It is Lottie's father. Dudley. (Give me his first 
name, can you?) No. (Good night, Mr. Morse, come 
again.) I thank you. Some time when God is will- 
ing." 

Mrs. Smead had known this George Morse, but had 
not seen him for seventeen years, and had not seen 
any of the family for fifteen years. She knew«noth- 
ing of this George Morse's death. He died on Octo- 
ber 9th, 1895, two years later than the statement in 



i^-,i^^__gj^ii^ 



378 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

the communication would imply. Mr. Smead and 
a friend, the head of an educational institution in 
the place, about one hundred or more miles from 
Boston, had to make a special visit to the latter city 
to ascertain the fact. The name of Mr. Morse's 
wife was Mary, and he and she had belonged to the 
Fourth Street Baptist Church. Mrs. Smead knew 
both facts. He died of paralysis, not pneumonia. 
He was a master stone-mason during the last two 
years of his life, a fact apparently not known by 
Mrs. Smead, she not having been in the part of the 
city where he lived for some twelve years, and that 
only to pass through it twice on the street-car. She 
says she never saw him dressed in any way to sug- 
gest his work. She did not know that Mr. Morse's 
mother was dead, nor that his wife was living. 

There is some confusion connected with the men- 
tion of the name " Dudley." Mr. Dudley is the 
name of the husband of one of Mrs. Morse's sisters, 
and is still living, while it appears in the communi- 
cation that he is said to be deceased. Mrs. Smead 
did not know whether he was living at the time or 
not. But there was a Mr. Caldwell who was the hus- 
band of another sister and who was deceased. Mrs. 
Smead knew this fact well enough. She knew that 
Mrs. Dudley and her daughter Lottie were deceased. 

The reader will find interesting play in the record. 
The reference to Mrs. Smead's maiden name is good, 
and so also the manner of alluding to Lottie Dudley. 
Supposing it to have been a subliminal play it is 
most interesting to see it in the act of simulation. 

The next set of incidents, obtained at a later sit- 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 379 

ting and relating to another acquaintance, is one 
of the most interesting in the whole Smead record. 
It is especially interesting for the confusion and error 
so noticeable in the Piper case. I give the record in 
detail. 

" (Who is writing?) [Scrawls with two or three 
letters clearly written. They were " mim." Scrawls 
again.] Mil. . . . (Write it plainer.) Miller. 
Miller. (I asked a mental question, ' Was your name 
William Miller.? If so write it.') My name was not 
that. Sister's was. (Go on.) She is not here. 
(What was your name.^^) Stearns. (Write the last 
word again.) Stearns. (The name is ' Steams,' 
is it.f^) Yes. (What was your first name.'') . . . 
[Scrawls.] What . . . [undecipherable.] Lowell 
Rose. . . . [undec] (Try to tell me your first 
name.) . . . [undec, resembles ' Clelee.'] Lowell 
Rosa. . . . [undec] (Will you tell me who you 
are?) I did. (I know that you told me your name, 
but you did not tell me your first name. If I can get 
that I shall have a fact to work with.) Robert . . . 
[undec] will kn . . . [know]. (All that is of no 
use.) Wait. (I will. I am sorry that I was in a 
hurry. I ask your pardon. Go on.) Rober — . . • 
[undec] Robert. (Robert? What Robert?) 
Robert will know. (What is the last word?) 
Know. (What Robert?) Miller will know. (Robert 
Miller of Sandwich?) I told you. Do you know 
him? ( ) Yes, you do. Robert, yes. (Whom 

do you want Robert Miller to know?) Mrs. Steam. 
Lowell, his wife's sister. (Did you write sister?) 
Yes. (Will you give me your first name?) . . . 



I' 



380 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

[undec. but looks like ' Celelee,' as first written and 
then repeated less distinctly.] (Are you Robert 
Miller's wife's sister?) I am her sister. She was 
good to me and she was good to father. You will 
remember him. She told me about your preaching. 
So I have heard of you. I thank her, tell her. (You 
want me to thank Mrs. Miller.^) Yes, my father does, 
too." 

When the name Miller was first read Mr. and Mrs. 
Smead thought of another Miller altogether, which 
was quickly changed by the name Robert. They 
had known a Robert Miller and his wife some four 
or five years previously in connection with some 
church work, but had not seen them since they moved 
from the town named, except two or three times. 
Mr. Smead had to make special inquiries regarding 
the pertinence of the messages at this sitting. He 
found the following facts. Mrs. Miller's sister was 
deceased, having died about a year before the com- 
munication. Her name was not Stearns, but Keliher. 
Her husband, however, had worked in Stearns' Manu- 
facturing Company, in Lawrence, Mass. Mrs. Miller 
had cared for her father in Lowell during his last 
days. Mrs. Keliher had died in a delirium in which 
she had lost the sense of personal identity. Appar- 
I ently Mrs. Smead knew nothing of this fact and had 

never known the lady at all, or of her death, and so 
knew nothing, it seems, about the husband's employ- 

f ment in the Stearns Company. 

k ) There are a large number of other " communica- 

/ tors " from time to time, but the messages are either 

too confused or too lengthy to quote at length. I 



MEDroMISTIC PHENOMENA 381 

have given a sufficient amount to indicate the char- 
acter of the record, so far as it resembles the Piper 
case, and shall not add to the account here. Some 
evidential facts came from a deceased child, but it 
would require too much time to detail them now. 
I must close this case with an important set of in- 
cidents, partly spontaneous and partly experimental. 
These, too, represent the experiences of Mrs. Smead. 
On one occasion, in the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. 
Smead had an experiment, and a deceased uncle and 
Mr. Smead's brother purported to communicate. 
That night, Mrs. Smead saw in her dream an appa- 
rition, but did not recognize any one. The experi- 
ence was noted the next morning, and later a letter 
came stating that an aunt in Baltimore had died 
the previous day. I myself saw the record and this 
letter. Mrs. Smead had never seen this aunt. I, 
therefore, advised Mr. Smead to secretly obtain a 
photograph of this lady and to put it among others 
and try an experiment to see if Mrs. Smead recog- 
nized its identity with her apparition. He was to 
say nothing to her about the matter. He obtained a 
photograph and put it among about fifty others 
and asked Mrs. Smead to look at them, asking her 
questions about various schoolmates to make her 
think he was trying to find if she knew who was 
living and who deceased. When Mrs. Smead came 
to the picture of her aunt, whom she had never seen in 
Hfe, she startled and exclaimed, " That is the person 
I saw in my dream." Mr. Smead tried to make her 
believe that she was mistaken, but in vain. The ex- 
periment was thus a success, whether we regard it 



382 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

as a chance coincidence or not. I have performed a 
similar experiment once before with the same success. 
The explanation of these phenomena superficially 
is clearly enough indicated. But whether that ex- 
planation is provable or not is another question. I 
cannot pretend that the facts which have been pre- 
sented have the kind of evidential value which the 
stricter methods of science may demand as a con- 
dition of establishing conviction in those who have 
not been witnesses of these and similar phenomena. 
But on the other hand, it is not my object to main- 
tain that the facts have any such value. The utmost 
that I would claim for them is that they are im- 
portant enough to make serious investigation imper- 
ative. In addition to this, they are, as already 
remarked, confirmative of the more scientific results 
in the Piper case, and point, superficially at least, 
toward the same conclusion. They will also have the 
same objections raised against them, and perhaps 
more, owing to the less stringent conditions under 
which the phenomena have occurred. As corrobora- 
tive material, however, we may not require so rigid 
a criterion, and especially when the main use of them 
is to stimulate inquiry rather than to produce con- 
viction. At this stage of investigation conviction is 
less important than interest. 

The first important circumstance to note is the 
clear articulation of the phenomena quoted in this 
f , chapter with the various types of incidents previ- 

ously presented. We found that all of the facts 
' related to the supernormal, though they did not 

prove a spiritistic interpretation, tended to indicate 



\^ 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 383 

that view of the human mind which made spiritism 
possible, and it remained only to secure phenomena 
bearing upon the personal identity of deceased per- 
sons to supply experimental proof where spontaneous 
evidence was accessible in the other type of incidents. 
Mediumistic phenomena are thus not isolated, but 
represent in a more cogent and defensible form the 
facts favoring a spiritistic theory, though there may 
be difficulties and objections to this interpretation. 
But to find that the whole mass of facts point toward 
the same unified conception of the supernormal is 
something in favor of the meaning attaching to such 
as have been presented in this chapter. 

Many persons will prefer to talk of telepathy in 
the coincidences which are more than chance in this 
chapter, but I am free to say that I do not think 
telepathy is a serious objection to the spiritistic 
view in these cases, because the facts have to run 
a gauntlet more natural than telepathy, and it is 
that much simpler objections can be raised. I do 
not think that the simpler objections actually apply, 
but this fact does not prevent me from recognizing 
frankly that I cannot insist on considering the data 
as proving what many think has not been proved by 
methods more severe. Of course, in a few instances 
the facts have a decided telepathic color, if we are 
to attach any weight at all in their coincidental 
value beyond chance. The answering of a mental 
question and the giving of the name " Evelyn Sell- 
ers " when the name thought of at first was " Eve- 
lyn " and afterward " Minnie Sellers." But how- 
ever this hypothesis may apply to such instances 



384 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

it does not so easily explain the Morse and Keliher 
incidents. Hence I think the same difficulties in the 
way of telepathy exist here as in the Piper record. 
The term has too indefinite a meaning to satisfy 
any really scientific mind. It will serve very well 
,_ to enable the untrained psychologist and scientist to 

[■''' exercise caution, but it will not fool any man who 

[l knows the limitations under which telepathy is appli- 

cable as a scientific principle. As long as it is taken 
to mean a coincidence between what a medium tells 
us and what some living person knows or knew, it 
will appear very formidable, especially as it creates 
the tendency to make the conclusive evidence for a 
jl spiritistic theory depend on the communication of the 

( contents of posthumous letters ; that is, of matter not 

known by any living person and yet verifiable after 
delivered. Such a criterion forgets that the ulti- 
mate test of a spiritistic theory must be certain psy- 
chological processes and their unity, rather than 
isolated tests. The latter may be very good for 
striking the imagination, but in the end the evi- 
dence must show the same kind of intelligence as is 
t found in the ordinary phenomena of normal minds, 

and this will not be obtained by isolated and striking 
" tests alone. The telepathic hypothesis exhibits no 

I features of this process, besides being both too elastic 

and too rigid. It may be a factor in the mode of 

getting the communications, but that, as a process 

between living minds, it should eliminate spiritistic 

i 1 agency, I think no scientific man would risk his 

/ reputation in the acceptance of it as an alternative 

to its only competitor, spiritism. 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 385 

I shall not argue the case at any length in this 
work, because I am not discussing an isolated group 
of facts. We have here the whole mass of psychic 
facts to measure and explain. They do not show 
a single type, but gather into their fold such variety 
with a common characteristic, looking toward a world 
beyond the sensible experience of men, that we cannot 
easily ascribe the whole of our facts to telepathy. 
The phenomena are too systematically unified by a 
reference to something beyond sense knowledge to 
accept as an adequate explanation a process between 
living minds that has no systematic character but 
that of an archfiend. For the selective or unified 
nature of the phenomena, scattered over all the world 
and without collusion between the parties aifected, 
shows such intelligence that a telepathic hypothesis 
which eradicated spiritism would have a gigantic 
amount of deception to reckon with in the very foun- 
dation of our unconscious life. That spectacle is 
not one to be contemplated with composure. We 
might well consider seriously the explanation by tel- 
epathy of a small group of mediumistic phenomena, 
but to take the whole field of the supernormal, in- 
cluding coincidental dreams related to dying and de- 
ceased persons, apparitions, clairvoyance, and pre- 
monitions, and refer them all to telepathy is to lack 
all sense of humor and to sacrifice all scientific rea- 
son. Nothing is clearer, from the articulation of 
all these phenomena, than that they have one ultimate 
cause, and whatever telepathy may do, either to 
explain a small group of facts or to inspire caution % 

in dealing with them, it is evidently not the sole sig- 



f 



■\ 



586 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

nificant agency in so large a mass of supernormal 
phenomena, always betraying, on their margin, the 
fringe of another life. 

The objection that troubles the popular mind is 
the triviality and confusion in what purports to 
come from another world, apparently reflecting a 
condition of degeneracy in one's personality. This 
view cannot disturb the equanimity of the truly 
scientific man. His business is to explain the facts, 
not to estimate them. At least he has not to make 
his explanation of them depend on any aesthetic or 
moral estimation of their meaning. His respectable 
telepathy has the same aspects to face, and it is only 
because he expects so little of nature that he tolerates 
that hypothesis more readily than one that has so 
long had an association with the divine, supposed to 
be above the inglorious conditions of the madhouse. 
But these considerations cannot move any really 
scientific spirit. It must accept any hypothesis that 
actually explains the facts, and wait for means to 
remove the remaining perplexities. In the passion 
to escape the hardness of the present life man has 
sought to gild the future with all the glory that 
fancy could create and forgot the way to make an 
earthly paradise, until science taught him how to 
convert material forces into his service and to make 
them obey his will. In this redemption of his earthly 
life he forgets the attractions of another, or idealizes 
it more than ever. In both conditions he is puzzled 
by what seems so unworthy of his respect and ad- 
miration. But we have lived so long under the 
brilliant lights of illusion and imagination in our 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 387 

estimate of the future, expecting it to have no rela- 
tion to the present, that we cannot bear any appar- 
ent revelation of the truth. We rely on science to 
transform our views of the physical world, but have 
not courage and patience enough to let it perform 
the same service for the spiritual life of the future. 

The duty of really intelligent men is to accept any 1 

conclusion that the facts enforce and abide the re- 
sults of further inquiry to shed light on the residual 
mysteries that cloud their revelation. 

We must not forget that the whole problem is in 
its incipiency and that it will take many years, per- 
haps centuries, to solve all the issues precipitated by 
our first hypotheses. Our first knowledge is but a 
glimmer of an awful vista, and we must not expect 
to have the beyond open to our vision at one glance 
all that it holds in the lap of fortune. I think I 
should vigorously defend some policy of silence on 
the part of nature or Providence, when I consider 
the insane curiosity and selfish propensities which 

would open Pandora's box only to explore the stock 1 

market or increase one's material advantages over 
his fellows. If no better purpose can be served by 
psychical research; if no moral and spiritual de- 
velopment can follow in its wake ; if it affords no 
inspiration for the duties and pleasures of ordinary 
life, it is well that its perplexities are what they 
seem. But it will be the fault of human nature, and 
not of Providence, if the glimpse which this inquiry 
may offer to the highest hopes should be converted 
into the abuses of superstition and thaumaturgy, or 



/ 



388 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

devoted to a blind acceptance of aid and advice where 
our natural experience is our safest guide. 

If we can divest ourselves of an illegitimate curi- 
osity about another life and await the verdict of a 
long and patient inquiry in the glimpses which we 
get of its existence rather than its nature, we shall 
have no serious perplexity with the questions that 
excite dislike. The triviality and confusion in its 
messages will be a protection against misinterpreta- 
tion of the evidence. They will lead to a study of 
the causes and in discovering these we shall find a 
marginal world that explains the facts while it re- 
veals a wider horizon. The limitations of the mes- 
sages are due to the conditions affecting the possi- 
bility of any communication at all. It is an abnormal 
state in the living that conditions the access of knowl- 
edge from beyond, and there is evidence that similar 
difficulties often encounter the efforts of those who 
have passed before to penetrate the veil. Besides 
there are probably intercosmic obstacles to ready 
communication, and when we add to these the mani- 
fold complications in the mental world affecting 
any access of outside influences at all, we may well 
imagine that abnormal conditions on both sides would, 
like deliria, give us only fragmentary knowledge. 
A series of facts will make this clear to all who care 
to think. 

The capricious play of our own memories, if left 
to the guidance of association, is not the ordered 
movement of philosophy and attentive reflection, but 
a weird and disjointed stream of past and present 
experiences, perhaps affording more pleasure than 



MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA 389 

information, and it may even break in upon the more 
stable trend of our rational life to disturb its repose. 
Often it may not reveal more than the tiniest fraction 
of its stores and these in the absurdest order. Why 
should not death, if we survive at all, bring with the 
changed conditions and the difficulties of communica- 
tion the same delirious mental action? Then we have 
again in the living that cleavage or separation between 
the primary and secondary personalities of every one 
of us that makes their intercommunication resemble 
that of the discarnate and the living. The subliminal 
activities in the living throw up into the normal con- 
sciousness often nothing more than the trivialities 
of experience, and there seems to be the same or 
similar difficulties in getting them into relation with 
each other. If then our subliminal life, like our 
prenatal existence, represents a latent or sleeping 
set of powers awaiting the revelation of another 
world for their activities, we may well imagine that 
the chasm after death between a new existence and 
the past will be as hard to bridge as is that between 
our primary and secondary personalities. Add to 
this any abnormal mental condition on the " other 
side " and the other obstacles to communication, and 
we could expect nothing but triviality and confusion 
in the best of messages. The facts only illustrate 
or prove what we might expect a priori, and as long 
as they leave no other hypothesis than a future life 
tenable we may well await patiently the further 
inquiries of science to unravel the mysteries which 
are not such to the psychologist and the philosopher. 
In this delicate interrelation between two worlds, 



f 



^r^ 



890 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

one the abnormal and perhaps hyperaesthetic of the 
Hving man and the other the abnormal and perhaps 
disturbed memory of the dead, we should expect 
little that would prove anything but personal iden- 
tity, while time and development may increase the 
chasm between the normal of this life and the normal 
of the other. This intermundia may be one in which 
it will require the knowledge of an expert psycholo- 
gist to distinguish the telepathic impressions of the 
living from the same phenomena between the living 
and the dead. No doubt there may be cases in 
which the main portion of the supernormal communi- 
cations represents the influence of telepathy between 
the living, while others may have the main rapport 
with the discamate, and others may shade in various 
proportions into each other. No striking revelation 
should be expected in such circumstances, but only 
the wandering memories of a mind not sufficiently in 
command of its action to direct the rational drift 
of consciousness. What it may do in its proper 
medium is not to be determined by these borderland 
phenomena. 



jM 



CHAPTER XI 

EETEOSPECT AND VATICINATION 

The previous chapters have taken us through a 
perplexing wilderness of marginal facts and human 
experience, and I have tried to see what unity they 
possess in determining the meaning of the world. I 
have not tried to expand that meaning by giving 
way to the imagination, as perhaps the majority of 
men and women would desire the psychic researcher 
to do, but I have kept before my mind the necessity 
of adopting no further conclusion than the facts 
will support and to accept that conclusion wherever 
it leads. The problem is primarily a scientific one, 
and any other intellectual and moral interests must 
await its verdict, precisely as they do in any phys- 
ical problem. Any invocation of these interests as 
a reason for giving a special interpretation to the 
facts would only be a return to the sentimental meth- 
ods against which science is a protest. We have 
seen enough of faiths that have no credentials in 
their favor but the wishes and hopes of their devo- 
tees, and having once banished such influences from 
the physical theories of the world it is quite natural 
that the more careful intellects should put all beliefs 
about the future to the same test. 

We may well leave the future to faith and hope, 
if we are not to suppose that these agencies have 

391 



392 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

a voice in the regulation of our present life. If we 
\\\ 1 can divorce the knowledge of nature and of the laws 

that fix so definitely the limits of human action from 
I all relation to a spiritual world, we may grant the 

■ , human mind all the freedom it desires to believe any 

F ' possible or impossible thing about its destiny after 

death. There would be no interest one way or the 
I I other in restraining these beliefs. Science could 

give them entire liberty to luxuriate in a congenial 
soil wholly undisturbed. It must be said, too, that, 
owing to various influences, it actually pursues this 
' policy with religious belief generally, having no in- 

terest in either its truth or falsity. On the other 
hand, if belief in the future can maintain its integ- 
1 * rity without association with the knowledge of nature ; 

if it needs no communion with the present order; if 
it can neglect the lessons of that fixed and inexorable 
set of laws which the despairing Greeks called by 
the name of Fate, it may well leave science to its 
reflections. But the Christian world has too long 
been identified with a moral relation between the 
J present and future to cut its faith loose from a knowl- 

edge of nature, and has indulged its imagination too 
much to any longer neglect the guidance of reason 
I and fact. Its conflict and defeat in the warfare with 

' science have disposed it to accept the divorce which 

its morality denies, and it will remain for some recon- 
ciliation of the intellect with the heart to secure a 
I \ faith which is at least half science and half hope to 

, preserve the sanctity of religion and the idealism of 

science. 
I ) Some complain that they " find so pitifully little 



I 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 393 

in the inquiry " worth remarking. This judgment, 
however, is due entirely to inexcusable ignorance of 
the problem and the difficulties encountered in solv- 
ing it. The statement is usually made by such as are 
seeking what I am sure nature or Providence ought 
to conceal. They no doubt speak from the point 
of view of those who have always sought a revelation 
of the future as clear as that of the present, and 
wholly mistake both the scientific and the ethical 
problem. Moreover, in the light of the actual prog- 
ress made during the last twenty-five years, and 
considering the want of resources to make investi- 
gation adequate, I must sincerely pity the men who 
v/ould indulge such a judgment. No doubt they have 
so accustomed their minds to the amazing discover- 
ies of physical science in the last few years that they 
are holding an entirely new inquiry to responsi- 
bilities that really intelligent men would not assert. 
These people wholly forget how slow was the early 
progress in physical science and that it took two 
hundred and fifty years for physical science merely 
to prepare for the work of the last fifty years. 

Psychological problems are not only much more 
complex, but represent, in their residual phenomena, 
facts so sporadic that it will take a long time merely 
to collect enough data to assure us of a conclusion 
as well established as the existence of meteors. Stu- 
dents are living who can remember when astronomers 
denied the assertions and beliefs of common people 
regarding " falling stars." But after awhile they 
surrendered, and every one now knows what a place 
in solar problems the supposition of falling meteors 



i 



394 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

has had. The manifold complications of mental 
phenomena, with the extremely sporadic character 
of their residual forms must make it long before 
we can have a scientific or accurate knowledge of all 
that they mean. No intelligent man will demand 
large cosmic revelations in this field after so little 
study as a condition of estimating its importance. 
The same standard would have long ago put an end 
to the investigations of physical science. What do 
such people want? Would they have results that 
would set them to consulting psychics about the stock 
market, and about their business affairs? Do they 
want aid in the projects of aerial navigation, or 
information about planetary and stellar life? Are 
they solicitous about the conditions of another life 
when any really moral Providence would be justified 
in boiling them in Milton's marl of sulphur? Aris- 
tocratic temperaments that have laid their hands on 
all that is best in hfe may wish to have a similar 
lease on the next life, as against a poorer lot, before 
expressing a willingness to study the facts at all, 
but they will not be respected by the scientific mind 
in such a judgment. Is any man so blind as not 
to see what a revolutionary fact telepathy is? Is 
that a " pitifully little " thing? Many do not yet 
believe in telepathy, but many more will have to 
believe this and in a most amazing form, extending 
far beyond the range of what is scientifically proved 
for such a process, if they expect to escape even 
much larger conclusions. But telepathy alone, even 
under the limitations which the evidence supports, 
jnust involve cosmic processes far beyond anything 



P 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 395 

that the ordinary materialism has imagined, and is 
the largest conception that science ever offered to 
the speculative intellect for its exercise. If we should 
add to telepathy a process involving clairvoyance, 
premonition, and the existence of discarnate spirits, 
we shall have extended our knowledge of the cosmos 
far beyond all that physical science has done. And 
yet this is to be called " pitifully little ! " The temp- 
tation to regard it so comes from a total misunder- 
standing of the strength of materialism, from the 
desire to ask for more than a sane morality requires, 
and from entire ignorance of the methods and pa- 
tience of science. 

The main difficulty is this. The public seeks ideals : 
science seeks causes. Practical life wants to know 
what it shall do now and what it can hope. The 
scientific man is looking for the conditions that deter- 
mine the facts of experience, and the very nature 
of his quest makes him discount hope and the imag- 
ination. Hence between the two types of mind 
friction will exist until science has imbibed an ethical 
interest and the poetic spirit has restrained its flight 
within the limits which its wings have fixed. The 
first great problem of the Intelligent man is to ascer- 
tain whether there Is any reason to extend our knowl- 
edge beyond the field of the ordinary materialism, 
and he will not stop to ask for visions of some re- 
splendent world as a condition of accepting Its exist- 
ence. He did not do this with argon, helium, and 
radium. He pursued his Inquiries until he found a 
larger secret lurking In the mysterious alembic of 
nature than hi§ first revektion allowed him to su§- 



396 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



I ' 



pect. It must be the same in psychical research. We 
have for our first problem to ascertain whether the 
allegations of supernormal phenomena represent ac- 
ceptable facts of an important kind. Our next is 
to find some general causal agency at the basis of 
them. If they involve the conviction that there is 
a future life we may stop with this until further 
inquiry may present us with a wider knowledge. But 
we cannot forecast what the revelation shall be. We 
have to take what the process reveals to us and not to 
go about discrediting it because we do not have all 
our irrational desires gratified. 

But I shall not further discuss the question of 
interpreting such phenomena as I have mentioned in 
this work. All will admit that they have at least 
a superficial suggestion that they are explicable by 
a future life, whatever else is suggested by some 
of them. Accepting this possible view of them, it 
Is now time to dispose the reader for considering the 
relation of such a conclusion to human life. This 
examination of the matter may clarify public con- 
ceptions about the meaning and remoter consequences 
of psychical research in a way that the man Inter- 
ested only In the scientific aspects of the phenomena 
cannot follow. Science makes no promises in the 
initial stages of its work. It observes, classifies, and 
explains, and ventures to predict only when it has 
ascertained something about the laws of the phe- 
nomena which it studies. Hence the purely scientific 
problem conceals from view the relation which it may 
have to the larger Issues of thought and conduct. 
The determination of the existence of radium was 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 397 

not accompanied by any preconception of its conse- 
quences to the existing physical theories of the uni- 
verse, or of the practical uses to which it has been 
put. The investigation was concerned with the af- 
firmation or denial of a fact, regardless of conse- 
quences. It must be the same with the problem of 
the supernormal, including a Kfe after death. In 
such a conclusion which the preceding chapters sug- 
gest, though they may not prove it, I can only point 
out what interests are served by it, and this will 
prepare the way for appreciating a work that may 
not at once indicate the far-reaching effects it may 
exercise on the life and thought of man. 

There are two influences that pervade human life 
and institutions. They are religion and politics. 
It is not easy to determine the limits in the functions 
of either of them, because they intermingle in all 
the situations of a rich, human experience, individual 
or social. But the various forms of conflict and har- 
mony between individual and social life keep religion 
and politics in the same mixed condition. In antiq- 
uity they were more closely associated. In modern 
times they have been more definitely divorced from 
each other. In the ancient order they lived and died 
together. Christianity came when that system was 
in articvlo mortis, or on its way to the grave. It 
was based upon the immortality of the soul and not 
upon the integrity of imperialistic politics. Chris- 
tianity, too, had its social system Hnked with its 
religious ideas and life which were explicitly bound 
up with the immortality of the soul. But this social 
scheme was not only a voluntary one, as opposed 



r^ 



HI! 



I '/ 



W; 



398 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

to the imperialism of Greco-Roman politics, but it 
sought the moral and spiritual development of the 
individual as against his sacrifice to the state. The 
supreme and intrinsic value of thought and action 
were placed in man, not in political institutions, or 
the external works of science and art. The state 
was made for man, not man for the state. The 
materialism that pervaded the decline of the period 
preceding the rise of Christian thought was over- 
whelmed by the belief in a future life ; and with the 
decline of ancient religion which had no social im- 
pulse to give it vitality and with the fall of imperial- 
ism which was the organization of force against the 
individual rights of man, came that reconstruction 
of society which rested upon a passionate interest 
in a future life and the new impulse regarding the 
brotherhood of man. This resulted in democracy, 
though it may not have been consciously aimed at, 
and though this brotherhood was recognized more 
as a way of purchasing personal salvation than as 
a social feeling spontaneously expressed. 

It is not necessary to go into the many influences 
that combined to remove ancient ideals from human 
interest nor into those which were cemented together 
in the middle ages by the belief in immortality. All 
that I need to emphasize here is the triumph over 
materialism of that faith which gave a spiritual as 
distinguished from an Epicurean hue to human life, 
and so enabled men to practise the virtue without 
feeling the despair of a Stoic. Nor shall I trace the 
history of that revival which swung the pendulum 
back again to natural science, literature, and ^rt, 



1 V) 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 399 

and away from that excessive absorption in the other 
world which had cultivated as many illusions about 
the order of nature as it had suppressed the saner 
and healthier duties of our natural life. I shall be 
content with asserting the resurrection of materialism 
and all the influences that it embodied, reinforced as 
they now are by the remarkable triumphs of investi- 
gation and discovery that have made an earthly para- 
dise far surpassing the ancient dream of the Elysian 
fields and the golden city of Revelations. No man 
puts off his ideals to another world when he can 
extort from the present more satisfaction than even 
avarice can hope to supply. Add doubt of another 
existence to this situation with the consciousness of 
what work will do as against the former indolent ex- 
pectation that everything came from the grace and 
bounty of Providence, and we may well imagine 
whither man would direct his efforts and hopes; 
namely, to the conquest of nature which he will never 
worship. The reaction toward materialism became 
doubly effective and deadening. On the one hand 
was the decline in the belief in immortality and on 
the other the rise of complete faith in the capacities 
of physical science to satisfy many of our earthly 
ideals. Work and achievement in the present took 
the place of hope for the future, made uncertain 
by the very victories of materialism. Hence, after 
having idealized the future as much as it had seen 
the carnal life in the ugly hues of sin and suffering, 
we can imagine what the passions are that are let 
loose by the loss of poetic expectations in time's dim 
vista and by discovering that the only ideal we may 



400 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



hope to realize is the transformation of physical 
nature by our own achievements into a sensuous 
paradise. That is what has been effected by the 
triumphs of materialistic science and art; and with- 
out any certitude that the order of the cosmos will 
respect one's spiritual ideals, no hope can be enter- 
tained that men will seek or find that inner peace 
which knows no disappointments and no despair. 

Two tendencies have produced the present condi- 
tion of our intellectual and religious life: the prog- 
ress of physical science and the decline of religious 
authority. They have acted and reacted on each 
other, but in fact both have been the result of a 
common and deeper impulse. The deepest influence 
that has affected the decline of religious authority 
has been little known or recognized. What the mod- 
ern mind has failed to appreciate is the simple fact 
that the principle of authority cannot retain its 
old integrity and power in a democratic civilization. 
Individual insight and character must take the place 
of external authority in an age which leaves the 
formation of convictions and the regulation of all 
government to the private citizen. The modern ruler 
cannot govern; he must obey. He may persuade 
and teach, but he cannot force a faith on his subjects. 
The conception of an authority whose judgment and 
power are to be obeyed without question belongs to 
the social and moral system of antiquity. That sys- 
tem was patriarchal and imperialistic. The whole 
political fabric was modelled after the conception 
of the family where power and authority were su- 
preme. The patria potestas of Roman law and cus- 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 401 

torn is the expression of it. There was no freedom 
of judgment or action for the members of the com- 
munity, family, or state, that could interfere with 
the authority of the ruler. Belief and conduct were 
alike dependent on this authority. Its will was ab- 
solute. The whole mediaeval system, political and 
ecclesiastical, was based upon the same assumption, 
and hence the inviolability of political power and the 
infallibility of the Pope or the Church. Protestant- 
ism emancipated the individual judgment and con- 
science in religious matters, while democracy fol- 
lowed with a political freedom that was destined to 
undermine religious authority just in proportion to 
the weakness of the beliefs on which the latter rested. 
As soon as the old doctrine of political authority lost 
its sacredness and influence the basis of religious in- 
fluence was sure to suff^er. 

The Church has been very slow to see this ten- 
dency. It has still clung to the prerogatives of ex- 
ternal authority long after the idea was dead in 
politics, and has not been awakened from its lethargic 
slumbers until the conception of political freedom 
had unconsciously done its work and the higher criti- 
cism had consciously displaced the old faith in a 
revelation. The more or less democratic organization 
of the Church since the Reformation carried with it 
the assumptions and practices of politics. The an- 
tagonism to external government gradually and in- 
sensibly undermined the respect for religious impe- 
rialism, and democratic politics completed the last 
stage of revolution against a habit of thought which 
is incompatible with its institutions. This gave a 



402 ENIGMAS OF. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

clear field for scepticism while physical science was 
achieving its triumphs in a field that the religious 
ages had cursed. No wonder that doubt, having won 
so easy a victory over the minor beliefs of religion, 
is able now to attack the fundamental fortress of the 
system, namely, the immortality of the soul. With 
that dissolving or crying for some other support 
than tradition, no authority could sustain the integ- 
rity of other beliefs that had been its protection. 
What guidance, then, must be sought in such an 
emergency? The last hope of the tender and re- 
ligious heart is thrown upon that agency which has 
usurped the place of religious authority and achieved 
such remarkable success in the mastery of nature. 
Science must take up the problem of securing a 
faith and of protecting the ethical ideals of man's 
brotherhood which received its baptism in the idea 
of a future life. 

" Science," says Mr. John Morley, who will not be 
accused of any religious prejudices, " when she has 
accomplished all her triumphs in her own order, will 
still have to go back, when the time comes, to assist 
in building up a new creed by which men can live. 
The builders will have to seek material in the purified 
and sublimated ideas, of which the confessions and 
rites of the Christian churches have been the grosser 
expression. Just as what was once the new dispensa- 
tion was preached a Judceos ad Judceos apud JudcBOS, 
so must the new, that is to be, find a Christian teacher 
and Christian hearers. It can hardly be other than 
an expansion, a development, a readaptation, of all 
the moral and spiritual truth that lay hidden under 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 403 

the worn-out forms. It must be such a harmonizing 
of the truth with our intellectual conceptions as shall 
fit it to be an active guide to conduct. In a world 
* where men sit and hear each other groan, where but 
to think is to he full of sorrow,' it is hard to imagine 
a time when we shall be indifferent to that sovereign 
legend of Pity. We have to incorporate it in some 
wider gospel of Justice and Progress." 

But what is the position of the Church in this 
situation? What is it doing to produce or protect 
a " creed by which men may live? " What has been 
its attitude toward the great questions of behef and 
investigation into an order which it asserts is provi- 
dential, and as stubbornly refuses to study and 
reverence? If we look at its history for the last few 
hundred years we shall find only one persistent oppo- 
sition to all that science sustained and as uniform a 
failure to achieve any success against this new ten- 
dency. The Church has had a fatal genius for ally- 
ing itself with decadent causes. It took up a violent 
opposition to Copernican astronomy and lost. It as 
bitterly attacked the doctrine of antipodes, or the 
rotundity of the earth, and soon lost. It tried its 
sword with the Cartesian mechanical view of nature 
and the pantheism of Spinoza and had again to 
yield to both of them. It regarded Newtonian gravi- 
tation as atheistic and had finally to accept it. It 
lost the battle about the six days' creation, waged 
with geology. It attacked Darwinian and Spencerian 
evolution with more virulence than ever, and accepted 
peace with it as the only alternative to annihilation. 
It tried to save the inerrancy of Old Testament nar- 



K 



^ 



404 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

ratives and had to surrender to the higher criticism. 
It thought to except the New Testament, but soon 
criticism did its work there. There is not a single 
victory for it against science, while the self-confi- 
dence of science is directly proportioned to the de- 
spair of religion. The ministry do not know what 
creed is safe to believe or assert, and the churches 
have to become social clubs and talk about the poor 
as an excuse for an existence that, so far as social 
efficiency is concerned, can as well be supplied by 
literature and art. When asked for a fundamental 
and logically defensible principle upon which its 
social enthusiasm depends it can give none but the 
aftermaths of a moral civilization which has lost 
the creed that made it. The corrosive influence of 
scepticism and the ethics of evolution, thoroughly 
dominating modern " business " methods, have left 
the moral and spiritual genius of the Church with- 
out an intelligible guide. There is no strenuous in- 
tellectual life pervading its work and hopes. It 
has no clear philosophy or logical basis for its 
assertions and expectations. 

Fifty years ago the theologian made it his busi- 
ness to know the philosophy and science of the day 
in order to meet his responsibilities. Treatises on 
the evidences of Christianity were plentiful and able 
enough, though mistaken in their method and at- 
titude toward the scientific spirit. But these are 
seen no more, except in communities still living in 
pioneer conditions. The whole intellectual life is 
abandoned to philosophy and science which have 
accepted the antagonism of rehgion and ofl*er no 



X" 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 405 

support to its aspirations and ideals. Having failed 
to secure argument for its fundamental doctrines 
and having persisted in attacking instead of accept- 
ing science, it has fallen back on a faith without 
facts, without intellectual power and conviction, 
without logic, and without a defensible belief against 
the overwhelming triumphs of science and philoso- 
phy. It clings despairingly to the formulas of its 
ancestors, to creeds that might have been true at one 
time in some sense, but that are true no longer. Find- 
ing itself baffled in every attempt to combat science on 
its own ground, instead of accepting its gospel and 
guidance, it goes stumbKng along in blind adhesion 
to tradition and worn-out phrases and mumbling 
a ritual over the cerements of the past. It is nerve- 
less and helpless before the triumphant march of 
the methods that have proved their right to regu- 
late human conviction and expectation by the con- 
sistent investigation of the cosmic order, and hence 
is left desolate and forsaken, a friendless waif among 
the vigorous throng that crowd about the standards 
of science and progress. If it really understood the 
genius of its own history and the teaching of its 
own philosophy, it would long ago have accepted the 
leadership of science and found peace in a gospel 
which reconciles the passions of truth and hope, and 
may save us from the divorce of the intellect and 
the heart by proving the immortality of the soul. 

It is apparent why Mr. John Morley should speak 
as he has done in what was quoted above. His wide 
experience with historical problems of a social and 
political character, as affected by general convic- 



406 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



J 



tions, entitles him to speak with some weight on such 
matters, and as science has supplanted religious au- 
thority there is no escape from the duty to submit 
the problems of rehgion to a scientific court. No 
other influence can now reestablish in moral efficiency 
what value the belief in a future life has. I agree 
that the belief has suffered from frightful abuses, 
and that it must be judiciously restored to place 
and power, if it is to be useful. On this feature 
of its possible power I shall not dwell, as we can 
assume that most people recognize what value it 
can have, even when they admit it has been abused. 
The important point to understand here is the fact 
that the majority of those who adhere tenaciously 
to the behef are not amenable to argument either 
for or against it. Certain primary instincts deter- 
mine their belief or hope in the matter, and the 
satisfaction that comes from the contemplation of 
the cosmic order in the interest of that hope makes 
them proof against scepticism. Their minds cannot 
endure the prospect of despair, and by sheer force 
of will they bring themselves to hope or believe, 
and give no reasons for it. This class do not need 
scientific proof of the belief, though it might give 
their moral action a support that hopes resting on 
the will cannot do. But the important thing for 
the world is that those who constitute its intellectual 
and spiritual guides shall have such assurance or 
probabilities for their beliefs and hopes as will in- 
crease their power in protecting moral ideals and 
educating the general masses into an appreciation 
of something more than a materiahstic view of life. 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 407 

If science were not the source upon which men de- 
pend for the determination of their convictions on 
all the larger problems of the universe, it would be 
less important to invoke its aid and support for 
human ideals. As long as men act on their convic- 
tions it does not matter what basis they have for 
them, except that they will have greater stabihty and 
power if they are made to rest upon a rational 
foundation. But when scepticism has undermined 
faith it is necessary that science shall assume the 
function of restoring some motive power as ade- 
quate as hope and as influential as history for influ- 
encing human thought and conduct. It is not that 
the general public should show any passionate in- 
terest in the complexities of scientific problems, but 
that the guides to men's thought and action should 
be qualified for the service demanded of them as a 
condition of saving the best that makes for right- 
eousness. 

The most amazing thing that the psychic re- 
searcher has to face is the indiff*erence or contempt 
which the Church shows to this important inquiry. 
Of all the classes that ought to welcome and en- 
courage it the religious types of mind should do 
so. But it too often suffices to know that science 
espouses a cause to invoke religious opposition. 
Nothing but the entire abandonment of intellectual 
measures for protection of its beliefs can explain 
its entire neglect of a method and result that are 
in support of the one great motive which enabled 
Christianity to conquer civilization. One would think 
that no people would rise more quickly for aid in 



408 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

support of their cherished hopes than the rehgious 
classes, and that they would instinctively seize on 
the chance to invoke science against its own tradi- 
tional opposition to religion. But it appears that 
religion is as blind to its interests as the materialists 
are to a spiritual interpretation of life. The Church 
is the last body of men to allow science to achieve 
another victory without enlisting its methods in 
behalf of the one reconciliation which is possible at 
the end of the long warfare between them. But 
again it seems doomed to allow the hours to pass 
without realizing its golden opportunity to win a 
triumph over its traditional enemy. The moral and 
religious reconstruction might be achieved amidst 
mutual concessions and the intellect and heart 
brought together in a lasting peace, the religious 
mind allying itself with science to make common 
cause against the libertinism associated with mate- 
rialism. But for some reason the course of history 
requires even materialism to temper the extrava- 
gances of religious enthusiasm and to force on the 
human mind the recognition of laws that the reli- 
ance upon the supernatural tends to discourage. 
Materialism need not be a bugbear for any but 
those who do not have the right conceptions of the 
world's order. Caprice ought not to characterize 
man's conception of the divine, though it has too 
frequently done so. The ideals of human life re- 
quire a stable system for their rational realization, 
and materialism stands for a fixed order and a faith 
in it that is quite as necessary for the best develop- 
ment of man as any dependence upon a capricious 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 409 

intelligence can be supposed to be. It must, there- 
fore, have its apologies. But it owes to the race 
some concession to moral ideals whether it can aid 
in their realization or not, and if the application 
of the method which has made physical science so 
successful should result in guaranteeing the hope 
of a future life we should not care whether we 
widened the conception of matter to give us an ex- 
planation or adopted another term to represent the 
new acquisition. But the religious mind owes it to 
its traditions to ally itself with that movement which 
has at heart the rejuvenation of the spiritual ideals 
of the race. 

When a man like Edward B. Tylor, after all his 
study of primitive culture and the customs and be- 
liefs of savage life, in his work by the same name, 
can use the following language regarding the belief 
in immortality, no one with a human interest in 
his veins can refuse the inquiry into its probabiHty 
and importance. " The philosophic schools which 
from classic times onward have rejected the belief 
in a future existence, appear to have come back by 
a new road to the very starting-point which perhaps 
the rudest races of man never quitted. At least this 
seems true as regards the doctrine of future retri- 
bution, which is alike absent from the belief of classes 
of men at the two extremes of culture. How far 
the moral standard of life may be adjusted through- 
out the high races with reference to a life hereafter, 
is a problem difficult of solution, so largely do un- 
believers in this second life share ethical principles 
which have been more or less shaped under its in- 



I \ 



410 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

fluence. Men who live for one world or two, have 
high motives of virtue in common: the noble self- 
respect which impels them to the life they feel worthy 
of them; the love of goodness for its own sake and 
for its immediate results ; and beyond this, the 
desire to do good that shall survive the doer, who 
will not indeed be in the land of the living to see 
his work, but who can yet discount his expectations 
into some measure of present satisfaction. Yet he 
who believes that his thread of life will be severed 
once and forever by the fatal shears, well knows 
that he wants a purpose and a joy in life, which 
belongs to him who looks for a life to come. Few men 
feel real contentment in the expectation of vanishing 
out of conscious existence, henceforth, like the great 
Buddha, to exist only in their works. To remain in- 
carnate in the memory of friends is something. A 
few great spirits may enjoy in the reverence of 
future ages a thousand years or so of ' subjective 
immortality ; ' though as for mankind at large, the 
individual's personal interest hardly extends beyond 
those who have lived in his time, while his own mem- 
ory scarce outlives the third or fourth generation. 
But over and above these secular motives, the belief 
in immortality extends its powerful influence through 
life, and culminates at the last hour, when, setting 
aside the very evidence of their senses, the mourners 
smile through their tears, and say it is not death 
but hfe." 

The moral value of the belief in a future life 
will not depend upon the mere fact of its assurance. 
No truth has its importance determined by the mere 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 411 

fact of the truth, but by its articulation with asso- 
ciated facts. It is not enough that we shall have 
reason to be assured of a hereafter, but we require 
much more to give the belief an ethical influence in 
actual life. I may summarize the conditions of its 
usefulness. (1) We must have some reason to be- 
lieve that it involves a moral order and the possi- 
bility of progress at least analogous to that of the 
present. (2) We must have some reason to believe 
that there is some sort of relation between the present 
and the future life, involving the consequences of 
action here. It is not necessary to have any clear 
or definite idea of the conditions of such a life, but 
only a reason to believe that it is moral in some sense 
of the term. The savage and the uneducated man 
has clear enough ideas of what such a life is or may 
be, but he has no evidence that his clear ideas are 
true. Besides, it is not possible to obtain any proper 
conception of a supersensible world in terms of the 
sensible. We can have little more than analogy for 
this, and in fact I should welcome a decided limita- 
tion of knowledge as to the nature and conditions 
of such a life. Man's duties and pleasures lie right 
in the present, and his only fitness for any future, 
whether within the limits of his present life or beyond 
them, is right action at the moment. Any future 
prospect disappoints unless it is the fruition of a 
right present. Any concealment that nature or 
Providence may practise of what is not necessary 
for a healthy terrestrial morality would be welcome 
to intelligent men, though they saw the need of ex- 
tending hope beyond the immediate future of the 



412 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

present existence. Finding progress and evolution 
here as the law of the cosmos, we might well infer 
that the same general law applied to a transcendental 
existence and not trouble ourselves about conditions 
that do not define immediate duties and pleasures. 
The first step, however, in our expectation of such 
a moral order is the conviction that we do exist here- 
after as a fact. This has to be settled by very dif- 
ferent considerations from those which will deter- 
mine the character of that existence. We have not 
yet the data for even suspecting what that character 
is. We have only matter bearing upon the prob- 
ability that it is a fact and that the materialistic 
theory is inadequate to explain the phenomena at 
hand. There is, however, an influential agency in 
the mere conviction that death does not end all. How- 
ever imperfect our knowledge of what the hereafter 
may be, the mere fact of an assured belief in some 
sort of existence in another life suffices to stimulate 
a faith that is hardly possible with the doubt or 
uncertainty of the fact. The forecasting of the 
future is essential to human progress. I do not mean 
that we shall know all about what is to come as we 
know the past, though our knowledge of the past is 
limited. But with the constancy of nature condition- 
ing the formation and execution of plans for the 
future in all our earthly undertakings, we may say 
that hope is the essential attitude of an ethical mind, 
and if that be so necessary to the best life of the 
present, we have no moral or psychological grounds 
to question its value for time beyond the limits of 
the present life. All that would be required of us 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 413 

would be to establish the fact of a post mortem life 
to justify the ethical claims of hope on mankind 
at large. 

Something of its ethical value in any form may 
be seen in the existing social and political situation 
which men may be called to observe. There has been 
no beHef that exercised so much power upon the 
poor as that in a future life. The politicians, men 
of the world, have known this so well as to postpone 
the day of political judgment by it for many years. 
In the dissolution of Greco-Roman civilization we 
know what a passionate satisfaction the downtrodden 
and poor took in this hope. Besides giving a spiritual 
aspect to all life and action it taught patience and en- 
durance in the struggles with nature as well as with 
the tyranny of politics. Suffering and pain had their 
pangs mitigated in the light of a better world when 
this life was gone, and the inequalities of wealth and 
social station could be contemplated with equanimity 
when these inequalities disappeared at the confines of 
the grave and all were reduced, as at birth, to equal- 
ity again, or the faithful rewarded in another life 
with a happiness that fortune or grace did not bring 
them here. We can well imagine what an influence a 
gospel of this kind would have over the poor and un- 
fortunate. If there is any other ideal possible in the 
world than that of material success and the physical 
enjoyments it brings, we have a motive for the virtues 
which the stoical mind preaches. Otherwise we must 
let loose the passions which make the struggle a 
bitterer one for material goods, and in that condi- 
tion the spiritual life can be no compensation for the 



414 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



i^ 



loss of earthly pleasures, simplj because it is not 
within the range of our hopes. 

We know how history was ruled by this spiritual 
hope for so many centuries, and until materialism 
became prevalent again there was no temptation to 
repeat anything like the Roman distribution of corn. 
Charity did its work through all the centuries, but 
it was partly a virtue leading to individual salvation 
and partly the means of relieving a situation, while the 
hope of a life beyond the grave could cheer those who 
had not had the fortune to obtain an equal footing 
with their neighbors in this life. The laboring classes 
could work with patience in this condition of civili- 
zation. But the moment that the prospect of a future 
life was discredited these classes would not postpone 
the day of reward. They, too, would become in- 
fected with the economic ideal and no sacrifices to the 
spiritual would be made. You cannot suggest stoi- 
cism in a situation of this kind. That is the virtue 
of one who has a spiritual hope of some kind. But 
when this is wanting we are left to fight out our 
earthly claims with our neighbors, neither giving 
nor taking any quarter but that which prudence and 
tact may dictate for securing a remoter advantage. 

I do not deny the existence of illusions in this hope 
as it has been held by many ages. These we have 
had to eradicate by a scepticism which does not 
always receive from the religious mind the recog- 
nition which its services deserve. In removing errors, 
however, we may equally remove the truth that lies 
in the penumbra of illusion. The consequence of that 
is seen in the French Revolution, when human passion 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 415 

lost the controlling influence of a spiritual concep- 
tion of life, and it will repeat itself for any age 
which leaves only an economic struggle to divide the 
classes. " While hollow languor and vacuity is the 
lot of the Upper," says Thomas Carlyle, " and want 
and stagnation of the Lower, and universal misery 
is very certain, what other thing is certain? The 
five unsatiated senses will remain, the sixth Sense (of 
Vanity) ; the whole dcemonic nature of man will re- 
main, — hurled forth to rage blindly without rule 
or rein ; savage itself, yet with all the tools of civiH- 
zation." The " Baphometic fire-baptism " and purg- 
ing which history will get in such a condition of 
things can be told by any one with moral sense. 

I have described in idea what is at least partly true 
of the present age. The triumph of materialism has 
brought with it a decline in the behef of a future 
life. The Church, having lost all its battles with 
science and having abandoned a strenuous intellectual 
defence of its fundamental beliefs, has lost its power 
over the poor and the laboring classes. The early 
socialism which the brotherhood of man had tried 
was soon abandoned and never revived. It could sub- 
sist on the belief in a future life, but with this in 
the Hmbo of imagination and merely instinctive hopes 
upon which to base an unreasoning and unscientific 
faith it has not been able in an age of reliance upon 
scientific methods to sustain any means of supplying 
a foil to its acceptance of the social ideals of aristoc- 
racy ; and the poor, who feel the need of social life 
and cooperation and who have no hopes of a future 
life to balance the loss of equality, are combining to 



416 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

exact what they think is justice from those who ac- 
knowledge no brotherhood and whose principal virtues 
and vices are Epicurean culture and the advantages 
of political power. The spiritual ideal of life has 
gone out of the masses as well as the classes, and noth- 
ing is left but a venture on a struggle with wealth. 

The ancient plebs had no political power, and even 
then they could almost as easily destroy society as 
now. But with the labor union for a church and the 
ballot for a political weapon, the last people in the 
world to redeem its spiritual ideals will be the aristo- 
cratic. We may talk about the dangers of illusions 
in regard to a life beyond the grave as much as we 
please, but these are no greater than Delmonico din- 
ners, white neckties, and decollete dresses. In a 
democratic civilization we cannot admit materialism 
for the intellectual and aristocratic classes and pre- 
serve a spiritual ideal for the masses. Both will be 
saturated with the same convictions, and in this age 
materialism is the saturation of economic passions 
with all their ramified physical pleasures. The 
moralist can easily predict the outcome. There is 
no use to say that we must educate more, as education 
does not supply moral ideals. It only gives them 
power and direction. What is needed more than 
anything else is some reason to believe that the order 
of the world is on the side of a spiritual ideal of 
life here and hereafter, and that reason must be 
based upon the same kind of evidence as that which 
has established the indestructibility of matter and the 
conservation of energy. Once convince mankind that 
nature values the spiritual ideal as at least equal with 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 417 

the economic, and the morahst will possess a lever- 
age of some power on the impulses that have so long 
been dissociated from spiritual ideals. With the 
brotherhood of man dismissed from its traditional 
place in religious life and felt only in the economic 
passions of the unfortunate classes, and without the 
corrective influence of spiritual hopes on those pas- 
sions, the course of history in a democratic order 
is a probability that any intelligent person may see, 
and we shall be fortunate if we pass the crisis with- 
out a cataclysm. 

I do not mean to assert or imply that a belief in 
immortality alone will ward off a social catastrophe. 
The political and economic problems have their own 
solution, and the spiritual theirs. But the latter is 
an important factor in the virtues that will mitigate 
the travails of the former. The mediaeval period 
thought to apologize for its indifference to political 
and economic rights by leaving the future to adjust 
the wrongs of the poor. The day of judgment was 
postponed until the hereafter instead of being ac- 
cepted here and now. It was so much pleasanter to 
be merry and to let others have the deluge. Then 
it was so easy to purchase one's own salvation by 
a confession and a little penance, still retaining lib- 
erty to sin at pleasure. But the very record of 
Christianity's ideals and the logic of a situation 
which had substituted Christianity for paganism kept 
alive a gospel which was often enough preached but 
little practised, and now that materialism has weak- 
ened the faith in another life men take up the only 



418 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

part of that gospel that is left and passionately 
demand a larger share in the earthly paradise. 

We have had to forget a future life as a condition 
of making the present one tolerable at all. The poor 
have taken the remaining half of our gospel and 
asked us to Hve up to it, and we have no means to 
prove their own responsibility for the inequality of 
which they complain. Having disqualified the spirit- 
ual hopes of the race we cannot show how economic 
pressure and struggle are the consequence of vices 
which offer so many opportunities for the exploitation 
of the weak. A belief in a future life may enable 
us to make the right estimate of man's worth in the 
cosmos, but it does not supply all the motives that 
are necessary for social justice, and hence, though 
it is important in the scheme of moral and poHtical 
redemption, it is but the complement of the influences 
which make for that end. Nevertheless, this quali- 
fication of its place and functions is not an excuse 
for neglecting its crucial character, especially in the 
wake of a civilization which had so idealized its 
nature and has to accept the corrosive and reaction- 
ary effect of scepticism. If we could add hope to 
a sense of justice, we might modify the struggle for 
existence while we excused many of its pains and 
made clear the delinquencies which produce so much 
inequality. But as long as the spiritual graces which 
do not depend upon wealth and leisure obtain no 
prospect of realization anywhere they will not be 
sought in the travail of the economic struggle. It is 
exacting too much of human nature to expect it. 
Hence we need those ideals and hopes which are 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 419 

equally a motive for patience and a corrective of the 
vices of whose consequences we complain; though, 
if we use them only in the interests of a personal 
salvation and do not use them for social betterment, 
— and democracy encourages an individualistic in- 
terpretation of both duty and pleasure, — we must 
expect the whole brunt of the struggle to be thrown 
upon the economic and materialistic life. Without 
this hope, however, the moral and spiritual forces of 
the world can do nothing, if they would, to temper 
this struggle with any ideahsm or justice. 

When it comes to supplying the evidence for such 
future hopes opinions may differ. But if they do, 
I am sure that the fact is due to a misunderstanding 
of the problem and conditions affecting its solution. 
We have so long been accustomed to the ready and 
easy revelation of the future which the traditional 
theology has offered us, and have so neglected the 
lesson of complication in physical phenomena, that 
we are not prepared for the greater complications 
involved in proof of the existence of the soul and its 
continuance after death. A little patient study and 
reflection, however, ought to show that it is not easy 
to bridge any chasm that exists between two conti- 
nents. The temptation to try it will depend, in a 
measure at least, upon the doubt about the other side 
of the chasm, and when the trial is made we must 
estimate its success, not by any preconceived ideas 
of what the other world is, but by the capacity of 
existing science to explain or not explain the facts. 
The trivialities that are apparent in apparitions and 
mediumistic phenomena need not vex the intelligent 



n 



4^0 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

man or woman who understands the difficulties at- 
tending the penetration of any mystic veil and who 
knows that nature always conceals as much or more 
of the future than it reveals. The relation of an- 
other life may be suggestively compared with the 
present as the relation of the present may be com- 
pared to our prenatal existence. There is little com- 
munication, and yet there is some indirectly, between 
our prenatal infancy and the world which is revealed 
by birth, which is our first death. Latent senses, and 
capacities lying there on the margin of another world 
and inadequately affected by it, but still nourished 
by infusions from its care, may be analogies of those 
supersensitive and perhaps inutile faculties which 
are only awaiting another dawn for their more spir- 
itual exercise. In the meantime any light that may 
accidentally filter through into our normal life must 
take the color of its action. " Now we see through 
a glass darkly." The sporadic admission of out- 
side influences is not a representation of another 
world, but an evidence of its existence, and when they 
are emanations of abnormal conditions on both sides 
and have to adjust their transit to mental action 
adapted to the physical side of our nature, we can 
neither expect them always to be systematic or in- 
telligible to our sensory standards of knowledge nor 
regard them as reflective of our natural ideals. They 
attest a transcendental fact, but not the full expres- 
sion of its meaning, and we have only to await the 
results of a larger inquiry and perhaps a better in- 
sight into the little section of evolution that comes 
within the range of our present knowledge to pacify 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 421 

the instinct of hope while we prosecute the acqui- 
sition of truth. The measure of expectation, how- 
ever, that we may indulge as to the outcome of such 
an inquiry is well supported in the testimony of 
the various men whom I quote. 

Sir Oliver Lodge, as quoted by Mr. Robert J. 
Thompson in his little book on Proofs of a Life after 
Death, says: 

" If any one cares to hear what sort of conviction 
has been borne in upon my mind, as a scientific man, 
by twenty years' familiarity with these questions 
which concern us, I am willing to reply as frankly 
as I can. I am, for all personal purposes, convinced 
of the persistence of human existence beyond bodily 
death, and though I am unable to justify that beHef 
in full and complete manner, yet it is a belief which 
has been produced by scientific evidence that is based 
upon facts and experience." 

Professor Muirhead, lecturer on Mental and Moral 
Science, Holloway College, England, says : " As a 
part of a wider philosophy, the results of psychical 
research seem to me to be of the greatest theoretic 
interest, and may even turn out to be of the greatest 
practical importance." 

Professor G. F. Stout, of the University of St. 
Andrews, Glasgow, says: "On this subject, I have 
certainly no claim to speak as an expert. I approach 
it, therefore, with much diffidence, contenting myself 
with a brief indication of my own personal attitude. 
It seems to me that, after all criticisms are allowed 
for, the evidence is still decidedly impressive, and 
that it is sufficient to constitute a good case for 



422 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

further investigation. But I am not convinced by it, 
even as regards telepathy. I am not myself clear 
as to the degree of my scepticism, or what evidence 
would be sufficient to remove it. But at least my 
doubt is not dogmatic denial, and I agree with Mr. 
Myers that there is no sufficient reason for being 
peculiarly sceptical concerning communications from 
discarnate spirits. I also agree with him that the 
alleged cases of such communication cannot be with 
any approach to probability explained away as mere 
instances of telepathy." 

Arthur Balfour, now Prime Minister of England, 
in his presidential address before the Society for 
Psychical Research some years ago, said : " If I 
rightly interpret the results which these many years 
of labor have forced upon the members of this society 
and upon others not among our number who are as- 
sociated by a similar spirit, it does seem to me that 
there is at least a strong ground for supposing that 
outside the world, as we have, from the point of 
science, been in the habit of conceiving it, there does 
lie a region, not open indeed to experimental obser- 
vation in the same way as the more familiar regions 
of the material world are open to it, but still with 
regard to which some experimental information may 
be laboriously gleaned, and even if we cannot enter- 
tain any confident hope of discovering what laws 
these half -seen phenomena obey, at all events it will 
be some gain to have shown, not as a matter of spec- 
ulation or conjecture, but as a matter of ascertained 
fact, that there are some things in Heaven and earth 
not hitherto dreamed of in our scientific philosophy. 



5> 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 423 

Andrew Lang, than whom the English language 
hardly has an abler critic and sceptic, in reviewing 
Mr. Myers' Human Personality/ and Its Survival 
of Bodily Death, says : " I myself, regarding the 
word ' matter ' and ' spirit ' as mere metaphysical 
counters with which we pay ourselves, think (re- 
ligious faith apart) that human faculty lends a 
fairly strong presumption in favor of the survival 
of human consciousness. 

" To myself, after reading the evidence, it ap- 
pears that a fairly strong presumption is raised in 
favor of a ' phantasmogenetic agency ' set at work, 
in a vague, unconscious way, by the deceased, and 
I say this after considering the adverse arguments 
of Mr. Podmore, for example, in favor of telepathy 
from living minds, and all hypotheses of hoaxing, 
exaggerative memory, mal-observation, and so forth 
— not to mention the popular nonsense about ' What 
is the use of it? ' ' Why is it permitted .^^ ' and the 
rest of it. ' What is the use of argon ? * * Why are 
cockroaches permitted.^ ' 

" To end with a confession of opinion : I entirely 
agree with Mr. Myers and Hegel that we, or many 
of us, are in something, or that something is in us, 
which ' does not know the bonds of time, or feel the 
manacles of space.' " 

Sir William Crookes, the discoverer of Crookes 
tubes, one of the ablest physicists in England, also 
says : " No incident in my scientific career is more 
widely known than the part I took many years ago 
in certain psychical researches. Thirty years have 
passed since I published an account of experiments 



424 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

tending to show that outside our scientific knowledge 
there exists a force exercised by intelHgence differing 
from the ordinary intelligence common to mortals. 
To stop short in any research that bids fair to widen 
the gates of knowledge, to recoil from fear of diffi- 
culty or adverse criticism, is to bring reproach on 
science. There is nothing for the investigator to do 
but to go straight on, ' to explore up and down, inch 
by inch, with the taper of reason ; to follow the light 
wherever it may lead, even should it at times resemble 
a will-o'-the-wisp.' " 

Dr. Cesare Lombroso, the physiologist and crim- 
inologist, says : " There is a great probability now 
given us through psychical and spiritistic researches, 
that there is a continued existence of the soul after 
death, preserving a weak identity, to which the per- 
sistent soul can add new life and growth from the 
surrounding media." 

Mr. Huxley, whose sceptical tendency no one will 
deny, says: " In my judgment, the actuality of this 
spiritual world — the value of the evidence for its 
objective existence and its influence upon the course 
of things — are matters which lie as much within 
the province of science as any other question about 
the existence and powers of the various forms of 
living and conscious activity." 

There is no good reason in this age for asking 
what utility any such belief as immortality may have. 
No one can easily defend the inutility of any truth 
the human mind is capable of discovering. Human 
nature may abuse all its utilities, but this is not to 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 426 

deny their value for the rational man. Besides, if 
the facts force us to admit the truth of anything, we 
cannot present scepticism of its utility as an argu- 
ment against its truth. That resource is the last 
refuge of a defeated philosophy, and comes very well 
from those who do not feel the struggle for existence 
against them and who are able to shift the burdens 
and sorrows of life upon other shoulders. Besides, 
it is usually a reflection of the attempt to save the 
moral ideals created by another belief when it has 
perished. We do not become stoical regarding a 
future life until we abandon it and try to save the 
ideals based on it. We may find that the generation 
that follows will not have that strenuous warfare to 
fight, but surrender at once to the contentment of 
present passions and their material ends. I shall 
not dispute that many evils have been associated with 
the form which the belief took in many minds. But 
this same qualification can be made of any belief, 
physical, ethical, political, or religious. The point 
is not to deny the value of all hope, but to give such 
hopes as facts may prove we have a right to hold, that 
rational form and color which will make them as 
balanced a motive for conduct as any earthly object 
may have. When any truth leads to evil results we 
concentrate our efforts to qualify it, not to deny it. 
We must remember that the question has always been 
put by the best men, and it will take the best to 
answer it. For more than a century Heine's terrible 
query and answer have represented the prevailing 
sentiment of intelligent men. 



426 ENIGMAS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

" Sagt mir, was bedeutet der Mensch ? 
Woher ist er kommen ? Wo geht er hin ? 
Wer wohnt dort oben auf goldenen Sternen ? 

" Es murmeln die Wogen ihr ew'ges Gemurmel, 
Es wehet der Wind, es fliehen die Wolken, 
Es blinken die Sterne, gleichgiltig und kalt, 
Und ein Narr wartet auf Antwort." 

« Oh, tell me now what meaning has man? 
Or whence he comes, and whither he goes ? 
Who dwells beyond upon the golden stars ? 

« The waves still murmur their eternal song, 
The winds sigh low, the clouds pass by, 
And twinkle the stars indifferent and cold, 
And only a fool awaits an answer." 

The serious interrogation of nature promises to 
give an answer to the eternal question, and he will be 
a fool who does not heed it, though he must be wise 
to avoid any abuses to which his knowledge may 
expose him. Humanity and pity that would share 
with others the accidents of sorrow will always de- 
mand, angrily perhaps, some hope of redemption, 
not for self, but for those victims of sin and mis- 
fortune whose share in the world's unpleasant work 
has been larger than the more successful. We who 
have our livings guaranteed and who have aristo- 
cratic society for our enjoyment may well be indif- 
ferent to the hope of a future existence; for we 
have an intellectual and social life that serves as a 
good substitute for hope. But " the dull millions that 
toil f oredone at the wheel of labor " and have no rest 



RETROSPECT AND VATICINATION 427 

or culture, which are the priceless endowments of 
those who directly or indirectly exploit them, must 
always invite the sympathy of the humane ; and when 
no physical help is possible, the hope of another life, 
" where the wicked cease from troubhng and the 
weary are at rest," may temper one's moralities to 
the harsh treatment of nature, and mollify the pas- 
sionate cry of injustice. We must not forget, how- 
ever, the dangers of such a consolation. It may lead 
to a sickly resignation and the loss of that courage 
which is nobler than any wincing complaints against 
the afflictions of the world. Nevertheless, it will be 
something for the best minds and wills to feel as- 
sured that all the influences which hope can give in 
the achievements of earthly ends may extend their 
beneficence to a larger field of expectation, and if 
science can do thus as much for the future as evo- 
lution has done for the past we can read Heine's 
poetic indictment with more composure, and expect 
all noble ideals to secure from the proof of a future 
life an inspiration which " breaks out of the cir- 
cumambient eternity to color with its own hues man's 
little islet of time." 



THE END. 



FEB 26 1906 



i 



